Americans & Europeans admit that homeland health care is just not right.  It’s so expensive to have a needed heart bypass for instance, let alone any organ transplants, they’r just our ot reach.

Take the case of James Payne for instance.  Chicago Tribune reports, in their lifestyle and health section, that when he found out that he needed a liver transplant, he first tried to arrange the surgery at a top hospital in South Florida.  Doctors there told him that they couldn’t schedule the procedure for a few months (!) and that he needed $450,000 because he was not insured.

So his 55-year old wife, who planned to donate half her own liver (it grows back, don’t worry) to her husband, bought a plane ticket to India instead.  And there, they got the transplant for 13% of the US price, and that included a 10-week hospital stay.

The number of Americans heading abroad for medical procedure is surging.  I’ve even heard of people flying to Mexico to get their teeth fixed.  Imagine that!  How silly could be US health care.  Have you watched “Sicko” the movie.  Catch it sometime!  Because there you’d find out that Sadam’s conspirators get more decent health care than American Citizens.

Mexico has long attracted American travelers looking for cut-rate cosmetic surgery or dental work, and countries like Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines continue to lure medical tourists as well.

Last year, the South Asian giant attracted 150,000 medical tourists from the United States, Britain, Africa and elsewhere in South Asia, largely by offering an enticing trio of advantages: highly trained English-speaking doctors, quick appointments and bargain-basement prices. In India, a heart bypass goes for $10,000 and a hip replacement for $9,000, compared with $130,000 and $43,000 respectively in the United States, the AMA said.

India’s initial rush of patients, however, may be nothing compared with what is to come. According to the AMA, major U.S. employers and insurers are exploring whether they could hold down soaring health-care costs by shipping their workers halfway across the world for elective surgery.

Related Articles



2 Responses

  1. Wouter Hoeberechts

    02|Apr|2008

    The company that made the arrangements for these cases is worldmed assist, which can be contacted at http://www.worldmedassist.com

  2. Robbie

    02|Apr|2008

    You’re right, that what we’re seeing now in terms of medical tourism to India is but a glimpse of the future. Each patient we send to India, Turkey, Belgium or Mexico (the four countries where we have partner facilities)has a sad and compelling story about trying to get treatment in the US. Cost isn’t the only motivator. Increasingly, access to care (long waiting times or procedures too newly approved here to find an experienced surgeon)and the quality of international facilities (brand new, state of the art technology, associations with the likes of Johns Hopkins and Harvard) play into the decisions of medical travelers. Check out stories from our patients to see the variety of procedures sought and personal circumstances: http://www.worldmedassist.com


Leave a reply