Quote:
Originally Posted by Robbie
From what I read on medical tourism off of Google is that India is the master of heart surgeries. It's cheaper to fly there, stay in a 5 star hotel and have bypass surgery than it is to do it at the closest hospital to your home...let me google that:
Here's one of a man from the UK:
Heart bypass surgery in India
Cardiac bypass - George Marshall
It was one of the most critical decisions George Marshall had to take in his life. The 73-year-old violin repairer from Bradford, UK, was suffering from severe angina (chest pain) and was told by his local doctor that he had the choice of waiting for six months for a heart bypass operation through the National Health Service (NHS) or pay £19,000 for the same operation at a private hospital in Britain.
He then took the bold decision to fly 5,000 miles to Bangalore?s renowned Wockhardt Hospitals for his surgery where surgeons took a piece of vein from his arm to repair the thinning arteries of his heart.
A hale and hearty Marshall was discharged from Wockhardt Hospitals after a successful double bypass surgery performed by Dr Vivek Jawali, the Hospital?s Chief Cardiovascular Surgeon.
Marshall told the UK newspaper, the Guardian. ?I would have no problem coming again.? It cost him only £4,800, and that included the cost of his flight from UK to India and back.
Just read on one site that Coronary Artery Bypass surgery in India is $6900 In the U.S. it's $100,000 !!!! http://ezinearticles.com/?Low-Cost-C...ia?&id=1240118 |
Most of the time you don't have the luxury to shop for a better price with a cardiac problem. That is part of the problem with our system. If the patient has insurance then he could give a shit less how much it costs. Imagine if you had a grocery copay card...you would get the filet mignon instead of the peanut butter. I know when I have had someone in a critical situation the only thing I cared about was what could we do for them. That British example is the reason a government controlled national health care plan is not what we need. Hell we already have two...Medicare and Medicaid which are complete disasters.
The US educates and innovates for the world in health care and it is damned expensive. The research money comes from stockholders that expect a return on their investment (although they are often obscene). People in the US don't want to get on a waiting list. The more illegals we cover gets cost shifted over to those that do pay. The government is notorious for adding layers of expensive administrative costs. Politicians that create and vote on legislation are generally clueless on health care and have a paid lobbyist in their ear. You can just go on and on and on.
One thing that is always blown out of proportion though is that the US does not provide health care for it's people (even illegals). You can always go to an ER, there are free clinics, there are tons of programs even beyond Medicaid. As usual the middle class takes the biggest brunt not getting freebies and having a hard time affording a premium as big as their mortgage. People have a tendency to think that universal health care is somehow going to be free or cheap. It's not gonna happen in this country in the near future.
Maybe as the global economy grows and other countries start investing more and earning more things will balance out over time.