Life Here & There 
No Comments MEDICAL TOURISM: Are you in or out?
I came across an article of medical tourism (Kiplinger ata- I’m a subscriber) growing worldwide. Years ago, medical tourism was hardly large enough to be noticed. Right now, more than 250,000 patients per year visit Asian countries or will travel to places such as India, Singapore, Spain, South Africa, Costa Rica or even sa Pilipinas. The savings sound very attractive and, for many medical tourists, the real attraction is price.
For instance, a heart valve replacement would cost $200,000 or more here in the United States and in India the estimated price is $10,000 (guestimate ko lang). And that includes round trip airfare and a brief vacation package!! A metal free dental bridge worth more than $5,000 here in US costs $500 in India. Lasik eye surgery worth more than $3,000 in the US is available in many other countries for only $730. Also, cosmetic surgery savings are even greater. A full face lift that would cost $20K in the US runs about $1,250 in South Africa.
Wowoweeee, huge price difference! This concept has me thinking. I’d probably consider medical tourism in the future because the healthcare cost here is way too much- h astang mahala – and the long wait for medical procedures. It is increasingly difficult to find quality , affordable treatment when insurance companies aren’t willing to pay 100% of the procedures. The health care cost here in US is very expensive and the waiting is way too long! According to the National Coalition on Health care, more than 500,000 Americans traveled abroad to receive medical and dental work in 2006. In fact, this is not an isolated trend. Every year, millions of patients from around the world flock to some of the famous medical tourism destinations.
I know a lot of you have read or heard about United States having the best health care in the world. Well, maybe yes maybe not. In my own opinion, I don’t think we have the best health care in the world. What I think is we have the most expensive health care here in the United States. That’s why Americans are flying to Thailand and other countries to have the procedures done. By leaving this country to find offshore locations and assess quality medical care or surgical procedures, these people save an enormous amount of money with medical tourism. Most doctor positions are typically staffed by Western doctors and surgeons trained in Western medicine. The facilities are state of the art and they provide equal or greater quality surgical care than most US hospitals here. Procedures are performed with the same technology and expertise, yet the cost is as twice as cheap than the normal charge here in United States. So the question will be: Why is medical tourism cheaper than United States health care system?
From our own experiences, I feel we uncovered a key part of it. The insurance companies are complicit in the overcharging for services. Our daughter needed quite a bit of dental work done when she was 4 courtesy of dental hygiene of living in the Philippines for her first 2 years. In what was little more than an afternoon for an outpatient procedure in the hospital the bills ran up to $9000 when the dentist quoted us $3000. When we questioned many of the things itemized on the hospital bill, the insurance company didn’t care about how inflated the costs were and the extravagant charges for equipment and materials not even used.
So why is medical tourism cheaper? I would submit the primary reason is greed. Greed on the part of the hospitals. Greed on the part of the insurance companies. Greed on the part of the pharmaceutical industry. Greed on the part of the law makers who get into office based on the contributions of the insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and hospitals. US Government should get rid of the fraud in the medical industry and in itself, the nightmare of paperwork and have a system that offers medical procedures at a fair-affordable price. People around the world should be coming to the United States to get their medical procedures done. Not Americans leaving the U.S. to have their surgeries done in other countries.
Ta ta and Thank you for reading my rather long entry *wink*
Live well,
Anah
