More Americans going to other countries to get health care

[ck4829]

Soaring U.S. medical costs are causing many Americans to take to the skies on "medical tourism" junkets, looking for high-quality yet low-priced health care at foreign clinics.

The surge in medical tourism over the past decade is being driven by rising U.S. health-care costs and growing numbers of uninsured or under-insured Americans, said Josef Woodman, the author of a guidebook on the topic called Patients Beyond Borders.

Almost 45 million Americans, or slightly more than 15 percent of the population, are currently uninsured, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics from 2005, the latest available.

Woodman estimated that more than 150,000 Americans traveled abroad for health care in 2006. The number is projected to double in 2007, he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20070706/hl_hsn/medicaltourismtakesflight

[rodeodance]

1. I do not know if the US can be fixed at this point. I really do not.

[Selatius]

3. It will take a tremendous amount of political upheaval to break the power of corporations over gov't

Until then, the likely scenario in terms of health care "reform" is mandatory health insurance laws on the assumption that medical costs will go down if the costs are spread out over more people. Of course, we have to assume here that for-profit health care corporations who operate to maximize the profits of their shareholders will cut costs instead of falling to the temptation of keeping prices the same or mostly the same.

[upi402]

9. Great header

I agree 100%

[DBoon]

2. Yup. I have neighbors who have gone to Mexico for dental work

sad that we can't seem to get anything right here

[prairierose]

5. I went to Mexico for dental work in March..

and this fall I am going back for another procedure. I can afford to get the dental work that I need done there and could never afford it here.

[Flatulo]

4. I read that the HMOs support this.

It's just another form of outsourcing.

TIME had an article a few months back where they noted that common procedures (heart bypass, transplants) were 1/10 the cost in Singapore or Thailand, and you could have US-trained surgeons doing the procedures.

Wierd.

[ben_meyers]

6. My Dr. has moved his practice to Rocky Point Mexico

Why? No lawyers!! His medical liability insurance is pennies compared to Arizona. Mexico has a system of binding arbitration that keeps the vultures out of the lawsuit scam. My wife and I also go to the dentist and buy our prescriptions there. You do have to watch the drugs for counterfeits though.

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/331/7514/448

[DesertKart]

10. lawsuits are a tiny fraction of our health care costs

along with the typical problems like people who don't pay their bills and higher salaries for health care workers, government subsidies drive up our costs by quite a bit. Government subsidies create an artificial health care market increasing demand thus increasing cost.

If you want to fix the cost of health care fix the illegal immigrant problem (just make them all legal) and eliminate government subsidies.

[newyawker99]

11. Hi DesertKart!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[DesertKart]

12. Hello

Thanks :hi:

[ben_meyers]

13. Perhaps you have a link to your claim that

lawsuits are a tiny fraction.

Before my Dr. moved to Mexico his cost of protecting himself from lawsuits was $220,000 a year for malpractice ins., 2 full time employees just to document and keep files on every move he made and countless procedures, mandated by his ins. carrier, to protect his ass. That was is addition to his normal business insurance. And he has never even been sued! Who pays for this? He also needed 2 fulltime and a part timer just to handle claims and billing. In Mexico his wife is his nurse and runs the business.

The straw that broke his back was a misdiagnosed lab result that he had referred out. The lab settled out of court and his ins. had to pay also.

[treestar]

16. Well then he was responsible for malpractice

Doctors make a lot of money, and so their mistakes cost a lot of money, and that's the reason their premiums are high.

And in Mexico he doesn't have to pay the person the next time he commits malpractice. Poor patient. But the more it happens, the more the Mexicans are likely to start wanting to sue for malpractice, too.

And you have no proof or statistics at all, only one case.

[ben_meyers]

19. As a lawyer I'm sure you understand

The difference between litigation and arbitration, and what that would mean to the legal profession. The article I cited explained the Mexican system of arbitration that eliminates the need for lawsuits with the attendant fees and expenses. The system is paid for and run by the Mexican government so anyone has access to it.
If a patient has been harmed the patient gets compensated, but no lawyer gets 1/3 to 1/2 of the settlement plus the expenses for "expert witnesses" and that's why insurance premiums are less.

Scan the brief again http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/331/7514/448

[treestar]

15. True, and eliminate the insurance companies all and their

bureaucracy.

And with visas, the illegal immigrants could go home for treatment. When they are illegal, going home means they have to get back again, and when that's an ordeal, they tend to stay, so we create our own problem.

[treestar]

14. No lawyers means no people who want to sue

Or feel able to sue.

It doesn't mean no malpractice.

As a lawyer I am sick of the scapegoating. If you don't want there to be any lawyers, don't object to any injustice, OK? Just let the powerful do what they want and suffer the consequences and don't complain about justice.

And it's the jury that makes the ultimate decision, and the doctors have lawyers to defend them.

[JCMach1]

7. just had a tumor cut off of my ear last week: cost?

about $15 total... that was the deductible for the SPECIALIST visit. If it was regular Doc, it would have been free.

Oh, and UAE doesn't have universal care... WE PAY through insurance.

[SoCalDem]

8. Yet another privilege for people who can afford more.

A lower middle class person is not likely to even have this option.

I know people who have dental work done in Mexico and who buy their meds there.

Outsourced medicine may be ok for a one-shot surgical option, but if you have a chronic condition, all but the very rich would be priced out of even this market..

We need universal "French-style" medical care for all.. Insurnace companies/HMOs need to be BANNED from all medical issues completely.

Their employees can get new jobs at walmart :)

[ThatsMyBarack]

17. I ADORE the idea of BANNING insurance companies and HMOs....

....but we've have to :nuke: and start all over to do that.

[treestar]

18. Some of them would work for the government

This is what the right wing dreads.

I suspect what the other countries have is less of a gatekeeping system for entry into the medical profession. The reason doctors makes so much in the U.S. is they keep their numbers down and put quotas on foreign doctors, to keep their supply/demand ratio in their favor.

But if they are charging so much that it's worth it to go to another country, which includes travel costs, you can be they'll be trying to do something to outlaw that - though what, I don't know. Surely the cost of the travel can't be deducted from your taxes? They'll fight against any legislation allowing that.

We can't even deduct all medical expenses from our taxes! It has to be over ten percent of gross income or something like that.