Medical Outsourcing

By Susan Gordanier, The Hillsboro Argus

This recession has spawned a trend we haven't seen before: the propagation of phrases that cast necessary budget tightening choices as fun alternatives.

How many of us couldn't afford to go away this summer and instead enjoyed a "staycation." We used to be more honest about vacation time spent hanging around home. It was called catching up on chores.

The latest euphemism to cross our radar fits in with the debate on health care reform, although that's not the way it's being portrayed. "Medical tourism " is apparently catching on with a growing number of health insurance providers .

No, this doesn't refer to packaged tours of famous medical facilities, say jumping from Johns Hopkins in Baltimore to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., for instance. Instead a medical vacation is a trip for elective surgeries in a foreign hospital. India , Costa Rica and Mexico are carving out niches in this new global market.

The savings can be huge, hence the appeal. In a recent article, the New York Times reported the difference in charges for knee replacements or heart bypass surgery might be as much as $40,000, not including travel costs. No wonder some insurance companies are willing to pick up the cost of the ticket.

We wonder, though, why this development hasn't popped up in the current health care reform debate.

Citizens want guarantees they will not be forced to change doctors. Assuming medical tourism becomes a more frequent option, how will people react to being told they should travel thousands of miles and trust their bodies to total strangers?

And few tools exist to compare care at local hospitals, let alone evaluate those in other countries.

Globalization has affected many U.S. industries. Until now, service providers have been exempt from outsourcing. Watch out, doctors, your turn is coming.

You can get affordable health care in the United States - even without health insurance

Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/argus/index.ssf?/base/editorial/1251829238118200.xml&coll=6

Next >

[ Back ]

Click here to register and get quote

Trusted Source for Medical Tourism and Dental Tourism

Healthbase is the trusted source for global medical choices, connecting patients to leading healthcare facilities overseas. Healthbase's state-of-the-art, easy to use, information rich web-based system helps you research and arrange your medical care including necessary travel and accommodation, all at one place. We arrange first class services for patients at major internationally accredited hospitals in Singapore, Thailand, India, Mexico, Panama, Turkey, Costa Rica, Hungary and expanding to Argentina, Brazil and Malaysia. The cost of surgical care at our ever growing network of affiliated institutions is typically a fraction of the cost of care in the U.S. with equal or superior outcomes.
Healthbase's Dental Tourism provides a wide range of dental procedures through its partner dental offices and hospitals network in Mexico, Panama, Thailand, Singapore and India.
Over two hundred medical, dental and cosmetic procedures are available in various categories: Orthopedic procedures such as hip replacement, Birmingham hip resurfacing, artificial knee replacement, knee surgery, cosmetic procedures such as breast augmentation, face lift, rhinoplasty (nose surgery), liposuction, dental procedures such as bridges, implants, crowns, and procedures in categories such as cardiac, vascular, spinal, obesity, eye, LASIK, urology, general surgery, plastic surgery, laparoscopic surgery, weight-loss surgery, wellness and much more. The savings are up to 80% from typical USA prices.

Medical Tourism is the act of traveling abroad to receive medical, dental and cosmetic care. Medical Tourism is also called as Medical Travel, Health Tourism, Health Travel and Medical Value Travel. Significantly lower costs for best practice care is usually the primary motivation although some medical tourists go abroad for immediate availability of procedures and unavailable treatments. Patients frequently take advantage of the opportunity to vacation and tour inexpensively in the country they are visiting.
Note: All medical procedure information presented here has been obtained from publicly available medical resources and is here for reference purposes only. Healthbase does not claim to be a medical professional and does not provide any advice on any issues relating to medical treatment.

Main Menu

Medical Outsourcing