Leaving Home for Health Care

[Joe Steel]

"They ... told me it would be about $175,000, and there was just no way could I come up with that,"

So, with a little digging online, she found several high quality hospitals vying for her business.... Within a month, she was on a plane ... to New Delhi, India. Surgeons at Max Hospital fixed her heart for "under $10,000 total, including travel."

A Canadian?

A European?

Some other refugee from socialized medicine?

Try again (http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2009/03/millions-americans-travel-abroad-health-care)

[stephanie]

Hope she comes back alive...

the reason it's CHEAPER there is they don't have all the idiot regulations, the sue happy citizens, and clowns (well maybe just not as big of clowns), who run their Government.

[Nukeman]

A Canadian?

A European?

Some other refugee from socialized medicine?

Try again (http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2009/03/millions-americans-travel-abroad-health-care)
Gee joe your really slipping on this one. This has been going on for years. In fact Johns Hopkins has opened surgical centers in Pakistan and India both, they can charge less because it is usually a "CASH" BUSINESS, you cut out the red tape and the sue happy lawyers......

UC Davis has a VERY nice hospital in the Dominican Republic (the CEDIMAT)that will do stints and angioplasty for about 1/4 of what it cost here, once again NO LAWYERS..... Less red tape

Gee do YOU see a recurring theme here Joe......... Get rid of the red tape and get some tort reform............

[Joe Steel]

Gee do YOU see a recurring theme here

I see a health care system which can't take of its citizens. I see citizens who have to put their lives into the hands of foreigners halfway around the world rather than accept certain death in their homeland.

That's what I see.

[Kathianne]

I see a health care system which can't take of its citizens. I see citizens who have to put their lives into the hands of foreigners halfway around the world rather than accept certain death in their homeland.

That's what I see.

LOL! You take a couple anecdotal incidents and extrapolate? Wanna bet I can find many more from 'nationalized systems'? You must deal with the norm, not the outliers.

[stephanie]

I see a health care system which can't take of its citizens. I see citizens who have to put their lives into the hands of foreigners halfway around the world rather than accept certain death in their homeland.

That's what I see.

it can't take care of it's CITIZENS because it is over run over with Illegals, regulations, sue happy citizens and clowns in government.

and of course you're in favor to give the clowns in Government the reins to ruin our health care more...but as long as we all suffer together, it's ok, right.

[emmett]

An "earthling" is not necessarily a foriegner Joe when you need an operation to save your life.

Now...let's see if you paid attention to the fine points made by Nukeman and Stephanie.

What causes the prices of medical care to skyrocket out of sight?

A. George Bush
B. Too many rows of corn being grown in Iowa
C. Insurance companies, Lawyers and sue happy citizens combined with unrealistic regulations
D. None of the above

Answer: C


Understanding the need for more economical care many American institutions have opened facilities throughout the world to perform health care at greatly reduced costs to patients.

A. TRUE
B. FALSE


Answer: A



Nationalizing Health Care would make health care better and more available in the US.


A. TRUE
B. FALSE


ANSWER: B

[avatar4321]

I see a health care system which can't take of its citizens. I see citizens who have to put their lives into the hands of foreigners halfway around the world rather than accept certain death in their homeland.

That's what I see.

Yet you fail to see the "why" behind it.

The why is government intervention.

[Nukeman]

I see a health care system which can't take of its citizens. I see citizens who have to put their lives into the hands of foreigners halfway around the world rather than accept certain death in their homeland.

That's what I see.Those "foreigners" you speak of make up a VAST number of physicians in the US. They are trained as well as the physicians here in most cases.

The joint surgical centers are staffed with US physicians (not all of them but the good ones are) that rotate through and them come back to the US. Try and get your information straight for once.........

[emmett]

Joe........ah...........never mind!

[Silver]

I see a health care system which can't take of its citizens. I see citizens who have to put their lives into the hands of foreigners halfway around the world rather than accept certain death in their homeland.

That's what I see.

It all depends on how you want to go...Lexus or Hugo....they both might get you where you want to go....one costs 175,000 and the other 10,000....
Its a free country....and your choice....and none of my business and not at my expense....

[Jagger]

Some other refugee from socialized medicine?
Conservatives crack me up. In 2003 the Conservative Republican Right Wing Socialist Congress and President expanded Socialized Medicine in the United States. Now, they're pretending to be against Socialized Medicine.

[5stringJeff]

A Canadian?

A European?

Some other refugee from socialized medicine?

Try again (http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2009/03/millions-americans-travel-abroad-health-care)

It's called outsourcing. And I thought all good Stalinists were against it. Eh, comrade?

[Joe Steel]

LOL! You take a couple anecdotal incidents and extrapolate? Wanna bet I can find many more from 'nationalized systems'? You must deal with the norm, not the outliers.

I doubt you could many cases of patients leaving a national health care system for care they needed.

[Joe Steel]

Yet you fail to see the "why" behind it.

The why is government intervention.

The reason is greed. For profit health care is all about the profit not the care.

[sgtdmski]

Perhaps if the US system was more like the Indian system prices would be lower too. Let's see there was no insurance involved, the hospital in India did not have to have liability insurance, nor malpractice insurance, and it was paid for in cash. My pathologist at the hospital I am currently working allows patients to come in and have blood test run for their own personal use, he allows them to pay upfront. By doing this he has reduced the cost of the tests to these cash patients by around 60%. Insurance reimburses for a routine Blood Count at a cost of $65. The cash patients pay $28 for the same test.

The cost of healthcare in this country is ridiculously high for several reasons.

1) Insurance including Medicare and Medicaid.

2) Nonpayment from people who cannot pay the full cost or pay at all.

3) The need to carry high levels of liability and malpractice insurance. Premiums for doctors run around $170,000 to $275,000 a year depending on the specialty.

4) Shortages in the fields. Especially Nursing, Radiology and Laboratory. I work as a Travelling Technician. Hospitals bring me in to fill staffing shortages. I am paid an hourly wage, provided with a rental car, a rental house including utilities, cable and internet, I received a stipend for insurance and I receive a per diem per week. My hourly compensation for the hospital runs around $55 - $60 per hour. If I were a full-time hire my compensation would probably be around $40 per hour including my health insurance, matching 403b contributions and hourly wage. This means that the hospital is paying around $800 more a week for my services or $52000 a year. Currently there are two travelling lab techs and four travelling nurses at this facility. Which means that the hospital is probably paying an additional $400,000 a year in salaries.

Those are some things that people do not think about when discussing healthcare costs. If a Doctor works for a hospital, it is the hospital that covers the cost of the insurance for the doctors. This means that hospitals are paying upwards of $2 - $3 million a year for insurance.

Doctors are like everyone else, they sometimes make mistakes, unfortunately when a doctor errors it can cost a patient his/her life. That is why awards given are usually 7 figures. I went to McDonalds the other night, I ordered a double quarterpounder with cheese, because I was going to work I didn't check the order, when I finally got to eat, I found that they had given me a quarterpounder with cheese. Tell me if I sue McDonalds will I get those same 7 figures.

We need to reform the tort process. We need to limit some awards while ensuring that compensation is paid for the errors that are made.

dmk

[avatar4321]

The reason is greed. For profit health care is all about the profit not the care.

So doctors should spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to be trained in state of the art medicine and get nothing in return?

It's not greed to be fairly compensated for your skills and services.

Greed is expecting something of value for nothing.

[Kathianne]

I doubt you could many cases of patients leaving a national health care system for care they needed.


Canadian MP came to US for cancer surgery, says 'speed wasn't the reason'.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070914/belinda_Stronach_070914/20070914

Canadian quads born in Montana, because Canada lacked the neonatal care available

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/story.html?id=41ccae74-8325-449a-b89f-e68957ca25ae&k=79546

Hmm, Which people are happier with their systems? Includes a list of recent medical breakthroughs and countries of origin, notice anything?

http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba649

Proton treatments for cancer-not currently available in UK, have to come to US for lifesaving treatments. Google proton treatment and you find in US there are clinics for it all over the country

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/leicestershire/7979409.stm

Bottom line, while many Americans may skip a doctor's visit due to costs, when serious illnesses strike, the care, medicines, and machines are here. Most were developed here, yes because of profit.

[Kathianne]

***Crickets***

[Said1]

Understanding the need for more economical care many American institutions have opened facilities throughout the world to perform health care at greatly reduced costs to patients.

A. TRUE
B. FALSE


Answer: A

Actually, the ability to to 'leapfrog' technology is heavily attributed to this phenomena. Medical tourism. It'll be the next global bubble.