Medical tourism for the uninsured

A couple months ago, we noted that medical tourism was going blue collar. Now, Wired News reports that uninsured Americans are starting to look abroad for health care:

As startling numbers of Americans go without health insurance, more of them see their only hope in fleeing to far-flung nations like India for life-saving medial treatments.

The dearth of affordable health insurance has engendered a new breed of what the New England Journal of Medicine classifies as "medical refugees" -- patients traveling abroad for heart surgery and other crucial procedures -- that has grown sharply in the past two years....

The phenomenon of "medical tourists" -- people who casually travel to foreign lands for face lifts or breast implants -- has been well documented. But the new exodus of patients are looking for more essential care. Indian hospitals welcome these sick travelers with open arms, often lavishing them with more attention than they could expect in their home country.

Indeed, the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that they not be called "emdical tourists," but "medical refugees:"

The mainstream media have begun to highlight the plight of some new refugees: seriously ill Americans who receive treatment at advanced private hospitals in low-income countries. These patients are not "medical tourists" seeking low-cost aesthetic enhancement. They are middle-income Americans evading impoverishment by expensive, medically necessary operations, as health care services are increasingly included in international economic trade....

To ensure both significant savings net of travel expenses and patients' safety, such offshore care must be limited to nonurgent, short-duration treatments costing more than $15,000 to $20,000 in the United States for conditions that aren't exacerbated by air travel; these include major cardiac and orthopedic procedures. We estimate that treatments meeting these criteria currently account for less than 2% of U.S. spending on noncosmetic health care for worker households (excluding care for U.S. residents who live along the Mexican border).

Technorati Tags: India, medical tourism

Comments

[David Scott Lewis]

A couple of things to note is that there is an increasing interest in so-called "medical tourism" for cosmetic surgery, but also for experimental surgery using human stem cells. This is being done in China (I know the guy who is pioneering this, but I'm reluctant to say who it is in a public forum).

I don't claim to be an expert on stem cell clinicals in China, but it appears to be under municipal rather than federal (central government) control. However, I'm not totally sure about this. The "guy" in question lives in a city that does not permit any local hospitals from performing surgeries, but he has found a few cities where he/they (the hospitals) are already performing experimental surgeries.

So far, the results seem promising. Of course, results are quite preliminary.

Nevertheless, I want to once again state that I do not claim expertise in this subject matter and much of my information is second-hand culled from within the local expat community. (I live in China.)

FTR, I'm a senior exec with Tsinghua University's outsourcing hub (Tsinghua is China's MIT); we are not involved with any experimental stem cell surgeries. My acquaintance pioneering this research was not through acquired Tsinghua contacts, either.

I realize that experimental human stem cell research is an explosive issue for many. For me, it isn't; yet, I want to be sensitive to how others may perceive this.

[josefwoodman]

As author of the forthcoming consumer guide "Patients Without Borders," I agree with NE Journal of Medicine's assessment of the relatively narrow demographic for traveling patients. However, to characterize such patients as "refugees" is something of a slur.

With the infrastructure of international healthcare growing by the month (both in quality of care as well as number of beds), it's not out of the realm of the imagination that some US patients might indeed prefer the care offered abroad.

While no invasive treatment is particularly fun, and the term "medical tourism" an unfortunate misnomer, the American patients I've encountered abroad could hardly be characterized as refugees.

[R. Carrillo]

There are great opportunities for affordable healthcare in Mexico, which is around the corner. From cosmetic surgery to fertility treatments, go to:
www.surgicalcareinternational.com

[Dr Christopher Jones]

As chairman of the recent Excellence in Medical Tourism Executive Roundtable, the first non-partisan, totally academic conference on "medical tourism", I find the topic totally fascinating, and important. The industry is estimated to top $60 billion per year, and there is significant growth. What worries many is the lack of legal consensus on what recourse one may have to malpractice abroad. While there are many medical middlemen around, there is also a dark side to the industry, namely organ trafficking, wombs-for-hire, etc. These issues will undoubtedly come up more and more as America remains breathless in trying to either accept medical tourism or altogther discourage it. For more info, please see my paper in the Int J Fert (Feb 07) Jones and Keith: Medical Tourism and Reproductive Outsourcing: a New Paradigm for Global Healthcare".

[Shyam Varan Nath]

Check out the Medical Tourism related conference in Sep 2007, at Atlantic City, New Jersey:

http://medicalnhealth.blogspot.com/

Thanks
Shyam Varan Nath
http://MedicalExcursion.com
(954) 609 2402

[Sue Jackson]

Having personally gone through the "medical tourism experience" I can say that it is a perfectly reasonable option for anyone who is uninsured or underinsured. I arranged my trip to India through PlanetHospital (www.planethospital.com) and was delighted by the service I received and the quality of care provided by the hospital staff and aesthetic appeal of the hospital itself. Ironically enough, the very doctor I saw in India had practiced in Cleveland (not more than 3 hours away from my current residence) earlier that year before coming home to be with family. It's amazing that the geography ALONE made his services thousands of dollars cheaper.

[Sue Jackson]

Having personally gone through the "medical tourism experience" I can say that it is a perfectly reasonable option for anyone who is uninsured or underinsured. I arranged my trip to India through PlanetHospital (www.planethospital.com) and was delighted by the service I received and the quality of care provided by the hospital staff and aesthetic appeal of the hospital itself. Ironically enough, the very doctor I saw in India had practiced in Cleveland (not more than 3 hours away from my current residence) earlier that year before coming home to be with family. It's amazing that the geography ALONE made his services thousands of dollars cheaper.

[Alex Soojung-Kim Pang]

I wonder how long the wage disparities are going to last? There's at least anecdotal evidence that the opening of the European Union is starting to equalize wages (as someone recently said, Polish plumbers in Warsaw are charging fees similar to Polish plumbers in London), and the gaps in salaries between American high-tech workers and their counterparts (or competitors) in India and China are starting to narrow. Strangely, skilled workers aren't content to remain the low-cost alternative forever.

[Steve Mertz]

I was in contact with a Dr. Huang Hongyun in China, to see if I were a good candidate for stem cell transplants and after sending two MRI results-never heard another word back. Please use a lot of due dilligence when considering the appropriate doctor. Best Wishes!

[Christopher Jones]

Before women travel abroad for fertility treatments, thereby participating in medical tourism, they should consider learning their odds of success. Formyodds.com gives individualized fertility probabilities, including the take-home baby rate, and chance of twins, following in vitro fertilization (IVF). This type of an advance pregnancy calculator give the answer women really want to know: what are my chances of taking home a healthy baby? As such, it fits nicely with the ex ante aspects of medical tourism. Before it is known whether or not the clinic is good, women will know their realistic chances of success.

[Christopher Jones]

Before women travel abroad for fertility treatments, thereby participating in medical tourism, they should consider learning their odds of success. Formyodds.com gives individualized fertility probabilities, including the take-home baby rate, and chance of twins, following in vitro fertilization (IVF). This type of an advance pregnancy calculator give the answer women really want to know: what are my chances of taking home a healthy baby? As such, it fits nicely with the ex ante aspects of medical tourism. Before it is known whether or not the clinic is good, women will know their realistic chances of success.