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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: i-node who wrote (762930)	1/10/2014 2:28:13 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1572920

"By every objective measure, American health care was better than that which could be obtained anywhere in the world." No, it's not; for every rich guy coming here, 10 or 20 or 50 poor guys go there for care. After living with the pain for almost four years, Schuler had few options: He was uninsured and out of a job, thanks to his debilitating disc problems. An orthopedic surgeon Schuler met at work offered to treat him for free. But upon examining his X-rays he realized Schuler’s condition was far worse than he’d thought. “I exercised every avenue I could in terms of getting public assistance to get some medical health here and kept running into dead ends," Schuler said. That’s when Schuler turned to a solution more post-50 Americans are considering as healthcare costs continue to rise: medical tourism. Once only something done by the incredibly wealthy, medical tourism is "really turning into something people understand," said Josef Woodman, CEO of Patients Beyond Borders, which produces guidebooks on medical travel. The organization estimates that in 2012, 600,000 people will travel abroad for treatment -- a number anticipated to grow 15 to 20 percent annually as boomers age. "Our population is continuing to age into financially challenging procedures,” Woodman said. "Every month the insurance companies find a way to take benefits off the table. Each month there is a slightly bigger piece of the population pie that is going to find the cost savings very attractive." "I would tend to say that 80 percent or more of the people using medical tourism are baby boomers," said Rajesh Rao, CEO of IndUSHealth, a medical travel program provider for patients and employer health care plans. "I would say the bulk of utilization happens with baby boomers just because they’re at an age where they need more intervention." huffingtonpost.com A forecast by Deloitte Consulting published in August 2008 projected that medical tourism originating in the US could jump by a factor of ten over the next decade. An estimated 750,000 Americans went abroad for health care in 2007, and the report estimated that a million and a half would seek health care outside the US in 2008. The growth in medical tourism has the potential to cost US health care providers billions of dollars in lost revenue.[4] United States Although much attention has been given to the growing trend of uninsured Americans traveling to foreign countries, a report from 2008 found that a plurality of an estimated 60,000 to 85,000 medical tourists were traveling to the United States for the purpose of receiving in-patient medical care.[54] The availability of advanced medical technology and sophisticated training of physicians are cited as driving motivators for growth in foreigners traveling to the U.S. for medical care. Also, it has been noted that the decline in value of the U.S. dollar is offering additional incentive for foreign travel to the U.S. However, costs differences between the US and many locations in Asia far outweigh any currency fluctuations. Several major medical centers and teaching hospitals offer international patient centers that cater to patients from foreign countries who seek medical treatment in the U.S.[55] Many of these organizations offer service coordinators to assist international patients with arrangements for medical care, accommodations, finances and transportation including air ambulance services. It should be noted that many locations in the US that offer medical care comparable in price to foreign medical facilities are not Joint Commission Accredited. en.wikipedia.org