Missing From The Health Care Reform Debate: Medical Tourism
As the mind-numbing stupidity rages on in the debate over health care reform, there has been one booming industry that has gotten little attention as of late -- Medical Tourism. Fox News has tried to trash the industry, but it's becoming more and more popular.
We've heard the right wing talking points about how people from all over the world come here for medical treatment, but what rarely, if ever gets pointed out in response is that each year, tens of thousands of Americans travel outside the U.S. in to get medical treatment, sometimes life-saving procedures. Many of these people have health insurance, but they make the trips because their insurance companies won't cover the whole procedure, if they cover it at all. According to Newsweek, 60% of Americans find medical tourism appealing:
A new survey funded by Your Surgery Abroad, an online directory of medical tourism, found that more than 60 percent of Americans are willing to leave the country for cheaper medical services. “As people’s budgets in America are getting tighter, they’re much more inclined to start thinking about going abroad to save money,” says Adam Nethersole, the managing director of Your Surgery Abroad.
Wealthy patients have always crossed international borders (even the Nomads took trips to health spas), but the decreasing cost of travel has encouraged Americans of more moderate means to whip out their passports for medical procedures. And while more elective procedures like rhinoplasty and face-lifts used to attract consumers to exotic lands, a growing number of Americans are now traveling abroad for essential procedures like cardiology and cancer treatments. Read on...
If our health care system is so fantastic, why do thousands of Americans leave the country to get treatment elsewhere? Should we be surprised when we live in a country ranked 37th in the world by the World Health Organization? This isn't an indictment on our health care professionals, it's a testimony to the skyrocketing costs of medical care in this country and greed and rationing on the part of insurance companies. Perhaps some of our Democratic representatives and pundits might start picking up on the medical tourism business when talking about health care reform?
In fact, I just read an article this morning stating the same thing. Many Americans are going to places like Mexico for treatment due to the high costs and can anyone really blame them? I mean, its no fun if your health care plan doesn't cover all or most of a procedure you need and you get stuck with a whopper of a bill in your mailbox if you have it done here in the U.S. Medical care is the leading cost that has lead to so many individual bankruptcies in the U.S. and to a degree, to so many bank failures as well. If one really thinks about it, health care reform may be one of the biggest things to stabalize the economy and who knows, it may prevent more waves of foreclosures to.
Here is the article I was referencing. Right on the front page of Reuters:
As U.S. health row rages, many seek care in Mexico
NACO, Mexico (Reuters) - Retired police officer Bob Ritz has health insurance that covers his medical and dental care in the United States.
But every few months he drives from his home in Tombstone, Arizona, to this small town in northern Mexico to avoid the healthcare costs that aren't paid by insurance.
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTR...
How much do you want to bet that these forclosures are, for the most part directly related to the high costs of health care that people have to pay. Just look at this latest article regarding the forclosures for July. This is not getting any better but health care reform may relieve it some what so that people can pay on their mortgages:
Foreclosure plague: No cure yet
The housing market is still sick, with a record number of foreclosure filings posted in July.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The foreclosure plague continued to devastate last month.
There were more than 360,000 properties with foreclosure filings -- including default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions -- an increase of 7% from June and 32% from July 2008, according to RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosed homes. In fact, one in every 355 U.S. homes had at least one filing during July.
http://money.cnn.com/2009/08/13/real_estate/j...
This is one conversation that just repulses me...that Americans would have to "go foreign" to get well.
For free care:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/08/13/eve...
No, there's no problem with health care in the US..
Free market, dude. People go where they'll get what they want. If that means dollars leave the country, well, tell that to the insurers.
There's always free cheddar in the mousetrap, baby. - Tom Waits
Indeed, I lived in the UK when hoards would come over to use the NHS for free, and then complain about everything.
Likely the same bunch now that are trying to trash the NHS on behalf of their republican/corporate overlords.
They should stay at home, get sick and go bankrupt, then they might think about it.
But... but... according to Glenn Beck:
"Presidents, Prime Ministers, and heads of state from around the world come to the U.S. for healthcare! .. YOU LITTLE PINHEAD!" :)
* There are two types of Republicans: millionaires and suckers.
"Mugsy's Rap Sheet": Recording history for those who seek to rewrite it.
I've bumped into a lot of americans that think just the same of people from UK, Canada, France, Netherlands etc ....... i.e. the places with the best systems on the planet .......
The myths and lies that people wilfully choose to accept, and then revel in their own ignorance is astounding. This latest debacle is a good example of it.
I did not vote for Republicans and Democraps to get along better. I voted for change. I did not vote to continue to let the wealthy decide who gets healthcare. I did not for the wealthy to continue to decide who gets the news. I voted for change. If this President has one brain cell, he should live up to his campaign promises and deliver change. This mindless and continuous bs is accomplishing as much as george bush. No one has been prosecuted for ruining the US economy and no one has been prosecuted for all the US soldiers who died for zero wmd in Iraq.
Greg Palast:
Obama on Drugs: 98% Cheney?
More at link.
Democracy is too important to be entrusted to politicians.
Rise Up!
Protest!
in his town hall the other day he said that they already offerred to give up 80 billion in profits and they may be able to get more out of them. Congress has the ball in their park.
From the Greg Palast article:
Congress should MANDATE that the government plan (either Obama's "public option" or the Single Payer HR676 I favor) demand deep discounts in all pharmaceuticals AND buy from foreign manufacturers (for instance Canada) if they can get a better deal there.
From HR 676 Summary:
Democracy is too important to be entrusted to politicians.
Rise Up!
Protest!
$80 billion so they can gratuitously knock off $80 billion. Any drug deal that doesn't force competition is just smoke and mirrors. We must allow public insurance to require bids from insurance companies. Do that and you can watch prices drop over night.
then 2% is pretty damn significant IMO.
UK residents often go to other countries (France, most notably) for medical procedures.
So do Danes.
And their national healthcare systems pay for the medical procedures AND the transportation there and back.
Democracy is too important to be entrusted to politicians.
Rise Up!
Protest!
That's just the way neighbouring countries help each other out, when they choose to, opposed to being like the US for instance and trying to make up fault with Canada to scare it's own people opposed to taking note of the good things and interoperating them.
I lived on the south coast of the UK and the load would be shared with Northern France and visa versa, I was on both sides of the water and it was great in both.
It was a nice dream, universal health care, but it appears that corporate interests are more important.
It's the americon dream; profit is the only thing that is important in a capitalist country, didn't you get the memo ?
Residents of the U.K. who go overseas for surgery have imported a new “superbug.” The bacteria, which is resistant to antibiotics and is even more difficult to treat than infamous infections such as MRSA, has killed two people and seriously sickened 18 others in the past year.
Britain’s Health Protection Agency has declared the infection “a notable public health risk” as the bacteria continues to pop up all over the U.K. In fact, 17 hospitals in Scotland and England have seen the infection, which is in the enterobacteriaceae family. Many of those contracting the superbug, which produces an enzyme that destroys even the most powerful antibiotics, have had cosmetic surgery, liver and kidney transplants in India and Pakistan [Daily Mail].
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/200...
MRSA happens in the USA too. Nothing new here.
http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatm...
You could replace "UK" with any country where people travel.
... if you look at what's driving retirees to move to isolated places like west Texas (where I spent two years recently), it is proximity to lower cost health care, specifically Mexican health care.
A good number of the million plus U.S. citizens living at least part time in Mexico is that we in Mexico have a normal public health system where you walk in, take a number, and get treatment. My IMSS (Mexican Social Security) health insurance is about 1800 pesos per year (around 150 U.S. dollars) and -- while it includes restrictions on pre-existing conditions for the first two years -- is at least affordable.
And, if I want to use a private physician, I can -- and can afford it.
The big difference between Mexican and U.S. health care is this -- in Mexico, doctors are expected to practice medicine, not open a business.
establishing a Chinese-style system, whereby the doctor is only paid as long as the patient is WELL. The moment the patient falls sick, the doctor stops getting paid. He is still required to treat the patient, but he won't get another cent until that person is well again.
It would change things, you can bet on that.
There's always free cheddar in the mousetrap, baby. - Tom Waits
That kind of ethic is long gone... in today's uber-competitive China, those with the more money get better treatment. Now that doctors no longer have to work for the government but can set up private shops, the health in China much more resembles our current situation in the USA.
The anti-healthcare reform lobby likes to use the Canadian healthcare single payer system as a straw man, and cites individual anecdotes about a handful of Canadians coming to the USA for healthcare.
This study shows the number of Canadians coming to the USA is small, while the number of Americans going there is large:
http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/...
An older NYT issue (back from the LAST time the HMO lobby was gearing up to kill healthcare reform) shows the number of Americans crossing the border to Canada for medical care in just ONE YEAR in ONTARIO ALONE at 60 000:
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/20/world/ameri...
It's not surprising that Canadians don't go to the U.S. en masse, because, overall their healthcare system is pretty good, as shown in the following comparative study:
http://www.canada.com/topics/bodyandhealth/st...
and the study itself:
http://www.openmedicine.ca/article/view/8/1
The USA, on the other hand, is the only developed country to ever use charitable organizations like RAM, normally used to bring healthcare to impoverished third world countries, to plug the gaps in the U.S. healthcare system.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/28/60m...
And the USA is the only developed country where HMO bureaucrats stand between patients and doctors, and actually get BONUS' for denying claims and dropping people from plans when they get sick.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/09/the...
Also, this 60 minutes profile on American's traveling to Bumrungrad Hospital in Thailand for treatments they can't afford at home is somewhat telling.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paNRv---Adw
[ snark ]Oh all this must be liberal lies ......... didn't you hear the US is the greatest place on earth ..........[ /snark ]
Oh wait ........
I find it intersting that in light of hugely overwhelming evidence that just about every where else in the developed west (and large parts of the east) has it better than the US, the people there still accept and defend their "for profit and not for health" 'health system'.
I think they should just change the name:
"What's that Timmy, your ill ? Oh best break out the piggy bank and go deal with the profit system"
"Oh can't I use the health system mummy ?"
"Oh don't be silly, that isn't american, that's what commies, socialists and terrorist do my dear, look at Europe and Canada they are all so obese and unhealthy ....."
All the no-brainers must have kept up with Farrah Fawcett's recent death. They even had a TV show, shortly before her death, made by her, showing what she went through since her diagnosis of cancer.
Farrah Fawcett was rich. Did she only see the "best in the world" American doctors? Hell, no. She traveled to other countries, to get their specialists' diagnoses and treatments. Since she ended up dying, I guess it just reinforced the dunderheads' idea that if she had stayed in America, she would be alive today. Sigh.
...I don't think the low-information voters are capable of reading that much significance into the Farrah Fawcett case, and the nutcases were too busy mobilizing the resistance to the New World Order/Illuminati's latest conspiracy to kill them all with mandatory flu vaccinations.
I was back on the Dallas Morning News blog site today on the question is Health Care and Moral Imperative, but this time avoided my scattered Scripture references and went right for the history.
I'm curious to see what their reactions are.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Someone needs to figure out the export//import numbers. Funny if we are a net exporter of medical tourists, which is really a net import of medical services.
I was a "medical tourist" last year in November. I went to India for a hip resurfacing surgery. This procedure is not easy to find here, and I was not thrilled with what i was hearing from the 8 people I interviewed who got hip replacements here in California. I have no insurance. the operation cost $8000. My whole savings.
It was well worth it. I was treated better there than I have ever been treated in a hospital. I am now pain free. The operation is for life. You do not have to have it re-done in 10 to 15 years, as is often the case with hip replacement.
The issue is not just the cost, but even more important, the result. Do you trust your health care provider? I did not. I got what I needed at a Harvard Medical School International Hospital. It is called Wockhardt Hospital in Mumbai, India.I would recommend this place to all people seeking medical help.
you can fly to Thailand, stay for a week or two & enjoy the country while seeing your doctors (the best are trained in Europe and the US) and still be paying less than what it would have cost you in the US.
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