Congress Can’t Fix Health Care System; Americans Go Abroad
Congress can’t fix the health care system. A single bill squeezed through the House and Senate won’t eliminate the high costs, spiraling premiums, inadequate coverage, denial and delay in approving treatment and the paperwork bureaucracy plaguing health care. Those problems call for an elegant solution that lies beyond Congress’ grasp.
The phenomenon of medical tourism—of patients traveling from one country to another in search of less expensive and often more luxurious health care—has received considerable attention recently. In 2007, an estimated 750,000 Americans traveled abroad for medical care. The projected increase in the number of American medical tourists is from 750,000 in 2007 to 15.75 million in 2017. Most major surgical procedures (e.g., heart bypass, joint replacement, spinal disc repair, lasik eye surgery, lapband weight reduction surgery, etc.) cost 50% to 90% less abroad, thus, leading to the advent of medical tourism. Such huge savings make the cost of health care affordable for the uninsured and underinsured who either can’t wait for, or simply don’t trust, their government to come up with a solution to the health care crisis.
To top it off, the quality of care at many renowned hospitals abroad is on par with—and oftentimes superior to—that of a U.S. hospital. That is not to say that one should not be cautious in navigating the medical tourism process alone. Medical Tourism Facilitators have played an important role in promoting the growth of medical tourism, and at least in theory, have already done the groundwork to make sure the hospitals they partner with are accredited and safe to work with. The best case scenario is that they have visited the hospital and already have a system in place to make sure your medical trip is a smooth one. One such facilitator is MedBirds (http://medbirds.com), which is a subsidiary of Medical Care International, Inc. The company was founded by a group of U.S. health care professionals and has expanded rapidly to become a major player in the global health care market.
Without a doubt, worldwide, medical travel is growing rapidly, and destinations like Thailand and India have become major world centers attracting people from all corners of the world to their top-quality surgical and medical facilities. With its many benefits, medical tourism has, for thousands of Americans, become a solution to the vexing health care crisis.
Author: Conrad Crane
