2003-11-19 19:35:22.09701+00 by Dan Lyke 3 comments
Over at SSDB there's an observation that your HMO may be sending you to India. Makes a lot of sense, if the costs of airfare are wildly overshadowed by the savings in procedure costs, why not?
[ related topics: Health ]
comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment Re: A by-passage to India made: 2003-11-19 20:29:09.963375+00 by: dws
The "why not" involves differences in privacy laws, among other things. This issue got some coverage a while back when a transcriber in Pakistan threatened to reveal patient records unless she got her back pay.
#Comment Re: A by-passage to India made: 2003-11-19 23:43:41.780594+00 by: meuon
As many issues as I have with USA Hospitals, I would still rather be operated on here than India.
#Comment Re: A by-passage to India made: 2003-11-20 15:58:21.297493+00 by: petronius
Of course, there have been stories for years about prosperous Canadians coming to the States to get MRI scans, for which there are long waiting lists up North. Apparently the socialized health system up there has limited spending on the expensive devices, while in the USA you can buy one and set it up in a strip mall. Canada has about 4.7 MRIs per million souls, compared to 17.6 per million Americans. But then, you will get a similar level of care in either a Canadian or US hospital.
My fear about surgery in India would not be the competance of the physician so much as the rest of the medical infrastructure. Is the food safe, is there enough emergency equipment. I suspect that these hospitals have all the latest bells and whistles, in order to attract foreign customers.
Side point: in Italy and Sweden the nation health plans will pay for a psoriasis patient to spend a couple of weeks in Israel on the shores of the Dead Sea, where the environmental conditions are conducive to alleviating bad outbreaks of the illness. For example, the extra 1500 feet of atmosphere filters out some harmful solar rays. It is apparently cheaper to buy you an excursion ticket, a room in a bed-and-breakfast, and an appointment with an Israeli doctor than have you get much the treatment in Milan. But then, Europeans believe in "taking a cure" much more than American doctors.