Today there are over 45 million people without any type of health care in the United States. At nearly $700 per month for the average family, many cannot afford health insurance,
There are two factors that make the highest contribution to the unnecessarily high costs in the health industry: doctors’ wages and high malpractice insurance costs. The primary element is high cost labor. The annual salary for a general surgeon in USA is from 249,700 to 336,000, while average salary for a physician in India is $120.000 per year. Second, malpractice premiums are skyrocketing in the US; it has increased over 134.5% between 2000 and 2004. In other countries malpractice is nearly negligible since there are either laws that forbid malpractice law suits or there are limits to the amount that a patient can receive from a malpractice suit.
The solution to for providing affordable health insurance to Americans is reducing the amount of money that the insurance companies pay out to medical providers. This can be done by outsourcing certain medical procedures to developing countries such as Thailand, India, and the Philippines that have lower labor and malpractice insurance costs. Traveling to another country for medical procedures is nor a new phenomenon; Americans have been doing it for years. Now that the vast majority of foreign hospitals catering to American patients are becoming accredited by JCHO, the same organization that accredits American hospitals, the opportunity to save billions of dollars should be quite enticing to insurance companies and the ability to once again afford insurance companies and the ability to once again afford insurance should be encouraging to Floridians. For example, a hip replacement in the US costs about $100,000. In India, the procedure, airfare, hotel stay, and a vacation afterward costs about $10,000; that’s a country by those patients could be encouraged by legislation that would the patient 20% of the cost saving; in the hip replacement example, the patient would receive a check for $18,000 from his or her insurance company. Beyond cost savings, the patient may receive better care. In India, the patient to doctor ratio in hospitals catering to Americans is 5 to 1; that is far better than in the Untied States.
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MEDICAL TOURISM
Medical Tourism Facts
- Over 45 million Americans are uninsured
- Average cost for family insurance is $700.
- One million people become uninsured each year.
- Two major factors for high industry costs: doctors’ wages and malpractice insurance.
- The average salary for a general surgeon in USA is from 249,700 to 336,000 per year.
- The average salary for a general surgeon in India is $120,000 per year.
- Malpractice premiums in the US have increased over 134.5% between 2000 and 2004.
- In India, a procedure including airfare is 90% cheaper then a procedure done in the US.
- West Virginia, is the first to consider Medical Tourism for legislation.
24 comments:
I can definitely see why medical tourism is such a big deal, and will probably continue to be unless the United States incorporates a policy that makes health care more affordable in today's society. I think medical tourism is a great thing, especially if you do have the money to fly to another country and get the same treatment as you would get here but at a cheaper cost. It is only bad if you can't afford to fly somewhere else and not only that, you have to pay medical costs that are so high.
This is one of the most interesting things I have ever heard about...I wonder if it will become a bigger issue especially in Florida. I wonder of the ramifications on local physicians...essentially this could develope in other sectors of the economy... go to other countries to get cheaper cars, tutors, etc...I guess this is somewhat done on a small scale but who knows?
Medical Tourism seems like a very interesting option for people. If it ends up catching on maybe it will get Americans to do something about all of these ridiculous medical malpractice suits. Malpractice insurance really contributes to high medical costs in the U.S. I don't know what kind of regulations are in place concerning malpractice suits, but something really needs to be done to cut down on sue happy people.
Outsourcing has become a plague on our economy and society; exporting American jobs and healthcare is only going to harm the indusrty which is already in trouble. We dont need legislation to support something that is going to cripple hospitals; instead, we need legislation that will protect them, such as caps on malpractice claims. America needs to own up to its problems and fix them, rather than relying on a third world country to solve it.
Who is/are usmedicaltourism.blogsport.com? From the writing, with its multipe grammatical errors, one suspects it/they are not native english speakers.
Be that as it may, since some of the premises are faulty the conclusion cannot be correct. Certainly, the expenses the insurance companies pay out have to be covered by the premiums, but doctors' salaries are not the major factor driving up insurance premiums, drug costs are.
The salary sited for surgeons in this country is not excessive when compared to the incomes of other professionals with comparable education, training and responsibility. Nor is it excessive when compared to the incomes of successful business people. While the Indian MD may make a third of that, in US dollars, their salaries are outrageous compared to the incomes in their communities. An Indian doctor can have not only a mansion and expensive cars, but also numerous domestice servants, something almost no American doctor can afford (except perhaps a few plastic surgeons).
Medical malpracitce premiums are an important factor driving up health care costs and real reform in the form of changes in torte law are needed to fix the problem.
The real problem is that so many Americans have no medical insurance. There are two major reasons for this. Medical insurance largely did not exist until WWII, when employers began to use health coverage as an enticement for employees to work for them. At that time a very high percentage of Americans worked for very large companies, many of which have gone out of business or are a shadow of their former selves; US Steel for example. So, starting in the 1940s most Americans had insurance through their employer. Starting roughly in the seventies, the industrial giants in this country have been shrinking and more and more Americans are either self-empolyed or working for small companies. Whereas in the 1960s 94% of Americans had health insurance, as of 2004, only 80% of adult Americans had health insurance.
The other major factor is that up until the 1980s , there were relatively few insurance companies, The Blues (Blue Cross & Blue Shield) were the largest insurance companies, typically writing most of the policies for an entire state or two. This gave them a very large pool of employers and individual people to pay the premiums, and most of the "covered lives", an insurance company term, were healthy. Thus insurance premiums were low. It also helped that the Blues were not for profit companies so they did not have to generate a profit for investors.
It should be noted that insurance companies have found that 4% of "covered lives" account for 50% of outlays by the companies. To lower insurance premiums one needs to have a lot of people paying in so that relatively fewer people are generating expenses. To day we have thousands of insurance companies covering small pools of people. In fact, one of the major costs to these companies are the premiums they have to pay to the re-insurance companies they have to use to cover "catastrophic" cases.
What is needed is not packing people off half way around the world, which only works for the "walking wounded" and does nothing for the truely sick, elderely and frail. The answer lies in major, and I mean major insurance reform.
We need fewer, larger, not for profit insurance companies to spread the risk over a larger number of people. We should also make having health insurance mandatory. We have mandatory car insurance and some states have successfully implemented mandatory health insurance. If insurance premiums are based on well established risk principles and not by the size of the policy (large employers get huge discounts), insurance would be affordable.
The U.S. government certainly don't need another legislation to regulate something that is going to improve peoples' lives. I truly hope that those who read the article on Medical Tourism understands the basic economic theory of supply and demand. As the boomer population comes to retirement age, the demand for health care will rise. While the supply of medical doctors and building of new hospitals don't seem to be keeping up with the trend.
The major reason behind rising health care costs and the loss of insurance coverage for millions of Americans, however, are due to tax payer funded programs like medicare and medicaid that are crippling people from having personal responsiblity. We agree upon a social contract to be fully responsible for the cost of our decisions. Many trew that responsibility right out the window as soon as a third party steps into the picture and pick up the tab. Should we not ask how many of the 40+ million people do not have insurance not because they cannot afford it, but rather because they have decided to spend the money on something else?
I'd say we go back to the good ol' days before WWII, if you got sick, you paid your bill and left. But before the time travel machine is out on the market, how about we allow market forces to police themselves.
We are constantly looking for alternatives and that's the beauty of economics.
I think medical tourism is the interesting approach for solving to problems in the USA health care system. I think that it will induce the competition and decrease the price of the health expences. However, I wonder is it reallt halepul for the USA health care system in long term view? Is there any solution that we can provide high quality care and spend less money?
I think medical tourism is a such great idea. Before I read about it, I wonder is it possible idea? Is it realistic? Everybody saves money even insurance companies. However, doctors in USA will lose their comsumers, and they will against it. As everybody knows AMA has a powerful association.
Unless the USA health care system is changed to universial health care system, poor people cannot get a appropriate treatment. They can die or can go to the other countries to get a treatment. TO be honest, I think it is better than nothing. However, is it safe enough? As it said, there is no malpractice in the other countries. What if I got some problems during the surgery? Who will have the resposibility? Insurance company, hospitals in the other countries, individual?
I do agree that Medical Tourism would some of the problem of the health care system but not completely. This method would take long time if it were to work. I think there should be something done in this Country and not send people to another country. The American goverment needs to something about this problem. If everyone goes to other countries for medical care, the doctors would also move to other countries because there is more demand for doctors. And most patiens cannot travel in a critical conditions so what will happen then? How will the problem be solved.
I believe that solutions should be found to decrease medical tourism. It is good that patients can obtain the sam etype of treatment for less money. However, medical tourism affects the American physicians in a way that probably less physician will be needed in the future. Insurance conpanies should review their policies to help decrease this phenomenon.
I believe that there should be a law to make health insurances mandatory in the united states. By increasing the amount of customers, the prices would decrease. The government should be responsible for those who are not able to afford the insurance (our taxes would pay for it). If american health insurance companies paid the cost of medical attention in another country, the insurer and the company would benefit because the cost of medical attention are much lower outside of the USA. However, American hospitals and health services would be negatively affected. In spite of this, the transportation companies in the USA (such as airports and airplane companies) would benefit because more people would travel out of the USA.
It is very interesting to consider the cost difference between procedures in the US and the other countires. THis idea sounds beneficial to the consumers, the insurance companies, and the medical facilities in other countries. It could inspire the American medical industry to be more cost effective. Personally, I would love to visit another countries, get more time and attention from my doctor, and save a lot of money, too.
I think that the issue is so easily dealt with by outsources our patient resources. Because the issue of hifh medical fees is maintained by high doctor wages and a medical malpractice these are the matters to adrees/ Malpractice won't fall becausee
AMericans like to sue. So turn to the other matters of high wages.
I think that medical tourism would not be a good idea. The issue of the cost of health insurance being very expensive here in the US is the issue. Shipping patients to another country to have their sergery would not be a solution to the problem.
I agree,that medical tourism is a good idea. Many people cannot afford the cost of medical bills. Also, many people do not have health insurance. Going out of country is a lot cheaper, which can save a lot of money.
We're NOT shipping out patients by force. Medical Tourism simply gives us the choice to CHOOSE. Corporations and insurance companies can't force you to buy their goods or services. They can only entice you. Why in a free country do we meekly sit back and let the government tell us "You are forbidden to put that in your own body." Let's think of the alternative: If you're dying you can try something without having to import something illegally from Europe or sneak to some dubious clinic in Mexico. And that experimentation would save other lives later because we learn from that. From allowing people the freedom to choose. I argue further is we should've learn from the fall of the Soviet Union. Government agencies just don't do thing very well. With less government interference, private groups will step in to do things cheaper, better, faster. Because profit inspires people to invent, make, and improve things.
The healthcare costs in US are getting out of reach of the common people. It is much better to seek similar treaments at a far cheaper rate in countries like India and Singapore.Medical Tourism
Hello,
Very Nice article on "Medical Tourism". i really enjoyed reading your this article. i did get lots of good points from here. thanks for sharing such a good article.
i would like to visit here again in future for more information.
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Thanks
Your post is truly informative for me and i am so grateful to you for sharing this informative post here. really great job done by you.
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I do agree with the blog most importantly if were talking about expenses on health. It is really hard to find where you can get the expenses but with medical tourism surely no worries.
nice post.It is great to know that there are doctors who caters to the need of other people when it comes to health treatment. They offer their service to people who need it and a plus that the doctors are excellent.-----If you wish to know more about medical tourism, go to medical tourism guide. Let’s help you make a choice. Visit this blog for valuable information.
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