Operation in another country

Thank you senta – Well spotted!

The full article can be seen at: I have no idea how long that link will remain active …

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Need an operation? Here’s
your air ticket to … India

BY JANE H. FURSE
DAILY NEWS WRITER

Don’t look now, but that operation you’ve been putting off may be outsourced – to India.
American companies are encouraging workers to travel to India and other countries for costly medical procedures, Business Insurance magazine reports.

“It saves you literally tens of thousands of dollars,” said Bonnie Blackley, benefits director at Canton, N.C.-based Blue Ridge Paper Products.

A heart valve replacement, for example, that runs between $68,000 and $198,000 in the United States costs only $18,000 in India.

Blackley said that although her company’s survival depended on keeping medical costs in check, local health care providers “offered no extra discount or anything.”

So she contracted with IndUShealth, a “medical tourism” company that specializes in arranging employee travel to accredited hospitals and board-certified physicians in India.

Because of lower labor costs, India, Thailand, Singapore, Mexico and Costa Rica could pose some stiff competition for U.S. medical providers.

“We’ve globalized every other industry. Why not health care?” said Ted Nussbaum, director of North American health care consulting at Watson Wyatt Worldwide in Stamford, Conn.

But Chuck Kelley, medical director at Outrigger Enterprises Inc. in Honolulu, told the magazine it will be hard to persuade employees to travel abroad for medical care.

“Health care treatment is a very personal issue for Americans, and when they are sick, they want to be close to their family and in the care of providers they know and trust – even if they are not the best,” Kelley said. “They will settle for inferior and more expensive treatment to be home.”

Companies like Blue Ridge plan to give their employees a financial incentive to go abroad by offering to cover them and their dependents for any out-of-pocket costs.

Originally published on July 17, 2006

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Scott

One of the compelling reasons for going outside the U.S. for expensive care is that many U.S. health care insurance policies have annual or lifetime caps on benefits. A million dollars sounds like a lot of money until your artificial heart valve goes bad and has to be replaced. That’s especially true if you’re still recovering from your hip replacement and your triple bypass. Suddenly, India, Costa Rica, Thailand or almost anywhere looks better and better.

Excruciating pain is another “compelling reason”
This is true because in the U.S. you will be in a lot of pain when you recive your doctors bill! hahahaha.
You either die by your pain or you will die trying to pay for your bills.