Medical treatment overseas
As you all know, the costs of healthcare are skyrocketing--- as are the number of uninsured Americans. As a result, more and more people are looking to have operations overseas (it’s much cheaper). There are new companies emerging specifically to plan your medical trip abroad—think of it as a travel agency planning your vacation trip which includes a scheduled operation.
This is a viable business and it may be a great option for you. However, there are many issues that may arise and which need to be researched beforehand, such as: What are the hospitals like? What are the pre-operative, operative, and post-operative treatments like? What rights do you have if there is malpractice? What are the laws governing the doctors who will operate on you? You need to be very careful if considering one of these operations.
However there is one thing we need to question--- what is our government doing about this? The reason why Americans now have to go abroad is because of high healthcare costs (and no insurance to cover them). Like the cases in the NY Times article, Basking on the Beach, or Maybe on the Operating Table, someone uninsured would rather take the risk of going under the knife in another country because the cost of the surgery would be half the cost if s/he had the same operation in the US. This is insane!
Why does it have to come to this? Why do Americans have to go elsewhere to get affordable healthcare? We have some of the best doctors here, yet, we can’t afford them! With the boomers aging, this will be a grave problem (though not for the airline industry!). Imagine half the boomers going overseas for operations. Why should doctors come to the US to practice medicine? Or why should American doctors have to stay in the US if all the patients are going oversees? If this continues, our doctors will also start leaving the US, resulting in a shortage of doctors. 5 states already have a shortage of family doctors (please see the posting from September 30th). We are already importing drugs (or at least trying to import) from outside the US because it's cheaper.
What more needs to happen in order for our healthcare system to change?
This is a viable business and it may be a great option for you. However, there are many issues that may arise and which need to be researched beforehand, such as: What are the hospitals like? What are the pre-operative, operative, and post-operative treatments like? What rights do you have if there is malpractice? What are the laws governing the doctors who will operate on you? You need to be very careful if considering one of these operations.
However there is one thing we need to question--- what is our government doing about this? The reason why Americans now have to go abroad is because of high healthcare costs (and no insurance to cover them). Like the cases in the NY Times article, Basking on the Beach, or Maybe on the Operating Table, someone uninsured would rather take the risk of going under the knife in another country because the cost of the surgery would be half the cost if s/he had the same operation in the US. This is insane!
Why does it have to come to this? Why do Americans have to go elsewhere to get affordable healthcare? We have some of the best doctors here, yet, we can’t afford them! With the boomers aging, this will be a grave problem (though not for the airline industry!). Imagine half the boomers going overseas for operations. Why should doctors come to the US to practice medicine? Or why should American doctors have to stay in the US if all the patients are going oversees? If this continues, our doctors will also start leaving the US, resulting in a shortage of doctors. 5 states already have a shortage of family doctors (please see the posting from September 30th). We are already importing drugs (or at least trying to import) from outside the US because it's cheaper.
What more needs to happen in order for our healthcare system to change?
posted by CareTALKGals(tm) at 10/14/2006 09:40:00 PM
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