Brits in record numbers go abroad for health care
THEIR GOVERNMENT AT WORK
Brits in record numbers go abroad for health care
Long waiting lists, substandard treatment, increasing threat from hospital superbugs
Posted: October 28, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
c 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Filmmaker Michael Moore praises the UK's National Health Service as a model for the U.S. in his latest film, "Sicko," but record numbers of British citizens have apparently not seen the movie and are going abroad and paying out of their own pockets to obtain better health care.
More than 70,000 Britons will have treatment abroad this year, the London Sunday Telegraph reported, a number that is forecast to rise to 200,000 by 2010.
In the first survey of its kind in the UK, Britons said long waits for treatment by the NHS and fears of the growing hospital-infection crisis were the primary reasons they chose to seek medical care elsewhere.
India is the most popular destination for surgery, followed by Hungary, Turkey, Germany, Malaysia, Poland and Spain. According to the survey conducted by Treatment Abroad, "health tourists" from the UK travel to 48 countries.
(Story continues below)
The NHS is coming under increased criticism for its failure to provide health care. Cases of the superbug Clostridium difficile have increased 500 percent in the last 10 years and are expected to climb above the 55,000 cases reported in 2006.
Long waiting periods for surgery have imposed a de facto rationing system on medical treatment. Last month, a British man was told he did not qualify for a simple surgery because he was a smoker.
Costs for the NHS have risen due to increased bureaucracy that prevents nurses from seeing patients and increased compensation to general practitioners that have seen their earnings rise over 50 percent in the last three years.
Health tourists are courted on the Internet by foreign doctors and hospitals that offer consultations online or with agents in the UK. Cost of a heart-bypass operation in India, including the flight and hotel, are less than half what the same would cost at a private British hospital. The shortage of dentists in Britain is being met by dentists in Hungary.
"The confidence that the public has in NHS hospitals has been shattered by the growth of hospital infections and this government's failure to make a real commitment to tackling it," said Katherine Murphy, of the Patients' Association. "People are simply frightened of going to NHS hospitals, so I am not surprised the numbers going abroad are increasing so rapidly. My fear is that most people can't afford to have private treatment - whether in this country or abroad."
In the survey, almost all of those who obtained treatment abroad said they would do it again.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58379
Brits in record numbers go abroad for health care
Long waiting lists, substandard treatment, increasing threat from hospital superbugs
Posted: October 28, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
c 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Filmmaker Michael Moore praises the UK's National Health Service as a model for the U.S. in his latest film, "Sicko," but record numbers of British citizens have apparently not seen the movie and are going abroad and paying out of their own pockets to obtain better health care.
More than 70,000 Britons will have treatment abroad this year, the London Sunday Telegraph reported, a number that is forecast to rise to 200,000 by 2010.
In the first survey of its kind in the UK, Britons said long waits for treatment by the NHS and fears of the growing hospital-infection crisis were the primary reasons they chose to seek medical care elsewhere.
India is the most popular destination for surgery, followed by Hungary, Turkey, Germany, Malaysia, Poland and Spain. According to the survey conducted by Treatment Abroad, "health tourists" from the UK travel to 48 countries.
(Story continues below)
The NHS is coming under increased criticism for its failure to provide health care. Cases of the superbug Clostridium difficile have increased 500 percent in the last 10 years and are expected to climb above the 55,000 cases reported in 2006.
Long waiting periods for surgery have imposed a de facto rationing system on medical treatment. Last month, a British man was told he did not qualify for a simple surgery because he was a smoker.
Costs for the NHS have risen due to increased bureaucracy that prevents nurses from seeing patients and increased compensation to general practitioners that have seen their earnings rise over 50 percent in the last three years.
Health tourists are courted on the Internet by foreign doctors and hospitals that offer consultations online or with agents in the UK. Cost of a heart-bypass operation in India, including the flight and hotel, are less than half what the same would cost at a private British hospital. The shortage of dentists in Britain is being met by dentists in Hungary.
"The confidence that the public has in NHS hospitals has been shattered by the growth of hospital infections and this government's failure to make a real commitment to tackling it," said Katherine Murphy, of the Patients' Association. "People are simply frightened of going to NHS hospitals, so I am not surprised the numbers going abroad are increasing so rapidly. My fear is that most people can't afford to have private treatment - whether in this country or abroad."
In the survey, almost all of those who obtained treatment abroad said they would do it again.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58379
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I remember seeing this on tv,, they said it was only going to get bigger, and more patients travelling abroad....
U.S. Patients Seeking Low Cost Medical Care Around The Globe
This article was published on Saturday, May 19, 2007 8:50 PM CDT in Business
By John L. Moore
The Morning News
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A doctor in the United States recommended surgery. The insurance company said they wouldn't cover it. The patient flew to Thailand and had both hips replaced.
The health care industry and media reports name the process medical tourism, but for Joe Lindsey, and for others in the country traveling overseas for lower priced medical or dental care, it seemed the only alternative to bankruptcy.
Lindsey said the surgery in Northwest Arkansas would cost him between $50,000 and $75,000 per hip.
In Thailand, he paid $16,200 for his surgeries, his air travel, hospital stay and even some dental care.
More than 46 million people in the United States were uninsured in 2005, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Experts predict the number will continue to grow and health care costs along with it.
Worldwide, more people travel from their home country to another for medical care.
India, Thailand and Singapore are frequent destinations for medical tourists from the United States, western Europe and the Middle East, according to a 2005 article in the Florida International University Hospitality Review.
Futurist Marvin Cetron and Fredrick J. DeMicco, chairman and professor for the Department of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management at the University of Delaware, wrote the article.
Cetron and DeMicco reported that 250,000 patients a year visit Singapore alone, almost half of them from the Middle East. And they estimated that in 2005 nearly half-a-million foreign patients would travel to India for medical care. In 2002, they said the number was only 150,000.
HIP HELP
On Aug. 30, Lindsey checked into Thonburi hospital in Thailand.
He had tried to have the surgery in the United States and had scheduled the procedure for June 13, 2006.
Over the course of the past few years, his hips had started to bother him. Arthritis had worn away the cartilage.
Eventually, the cartilage in his hips deteriorated to the point where he needed a walker to get around.
"My wife and I are caterers. We own Creative Kitchens. I was worthless," he said. "I needed both hips replaced. The doctor said the pain in my hips was never going to go away. The cartilage was almost gone, and it was bone rubbing on bone."
Soon after his surgery was scheduled, Lindsey learned his insurance company would not pay for the surgery. Lindsey had a rider on his insurance that disallowed costs related to arthritis and gout.
Lindsey had visited Thailand with his wife in 1987 and had hosted foreign exchange students here in the United States.
One of the parents of the exchange students was a professor of human anatomy, and the parents of the other student worked in the medical field.
Lindsey said what finally convinced him to make the trip was speaking with a woman who lived in Bangladesh.
"She goes to Bangkok for all of her health care," he said.
Lindsey had his surgery for the first hip on Sept. 2 and was in Thonburi until Sept. 24.
"I guess they didn't want to let me go until they were sure I could make the trip back," Lindsey said.
He said he received excellent care, although he did opt to eat vegetarian foods while there, as some of the dishes with meat in them at the hospital included delicacies like green worm soup and pork blood clots.
"That bowl of fresh fruit started to look real good after they brought in green worm soup," he said.
BETTER CHRISTMAS
Lindsey said after the surgeries, he was allowed to leave the hospital and go into the city three times during his stay at Thonburi.
On one of his outings, he visited a temple that he had wanted to see back when he came the first time, but had been unable to.
Each time he rode in an ambulance. A driver and two assistants traveled with him.
The driver would drop him off and find a place to park; the assistants helped him get around. When Lindsey was ready to leave, one of the assistants would find the driver, who picked him up and drove him back to Thonburi.
The hospital charged about $50 for the service.
Lindsey said he agreed to share his experience on Thonburi's Web site to help promote its orthopedic surgery services to Westerners. It waived the $50 cost for the trips since he agreed, he said.
Lindsey came back to the states and slowly his hip got better and better. By Christmas, he had put the walker away, he said. Lindsey said he has not had any significant problems. He can walk and work fine now, although he can't sit and cross one leg over his knee.
"My hips just won't move that way now," he said.
Lindsey was able to receive follow up examinations in the United States.
"I had a good experience with it," he said. "And got fixed as cheaply as I could have, even if insurance had covered it."
BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY
Lindsey was hesitant to recommend overseas travel for other people who needed medical care.
However, he said the hospital he stayed in was a modern, clean medical facility with doctors that were trained in western medicine with many trained in the United States or the United Kingdom.
Lindsey had all the details taken care of by the families of the foreign exchange students who had stayed with him and he had already been to Thailand as a tourist.
Several American companies have sprung up in the past few years to help medical travelers arrange medical care overseas.
Joe Bender, a West Fork resident and a frequent traveler to India, decided he would try to carve out his own niche in the business.
Bender and partner Robert White formed Global Medical Solutions a few months ago.
Bender loves India. In 1996, he took advantage of the low-cost dental care there to have some work done on his teeth.
He said the cost was thousands of dollars cheaper than if he paid cash for it in the United States.
"I thought, 'Wow this is amazing.' I began referring people to my dentist over there," he said.
Bender said he doesn't charge a fee to the customers other than upfront expenses such as the costs of Federal Express for mailing off their passport application, or other "hard costs."
"Our payment comes from the hospitals," he said.
He has agreements with two hospital in India. One is accredited with Joint Commission International and the other has applied for accreditation.
MODERN CARE
Joint Commission International is a subsidiary of Joint Commission, the largest hospital accreditation organization in the United States. The commission was formerly the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations, but changed its name to the Joint Commission in January.
Thonburi and a growing number of hospitals overseas serving foreign patients are also accredited with JCI.
The hospitals in India that Bender works with have eye care and dental care as well.
Some patients, like Lindsey, may have a medical procedure done and take advantage of inexpensive dental care while they're recuperating.
The hospitals are modern and look like hospitals in the United States or United Kingdom, he said.
"Once you get inside the door, you don't really know you're in India," Bender said.
For those patients who will be able to vacation while they get their medical or dental work, Bender said they also plan to offer tour packages for people in Delhi.
CAUTION URGED
Representatives for the American Hospital Association, the American Dental Association and the American Medical Association recommend caution for patients traveling overseas for care.
"Many factors should be considered when choosing to go overseas for health care, and price should not be the only concern," said Dr. William G. Plested III, president of the American Medical Association, in a recent statement "Equally important in medical care is follow-up care. Patients must be sure that when receiving care abroad they have a plan in place to receive the proper follow-up care with a physician."
The dental association has some tips on its Web site at www.ada.org concerning overseas dental care. It recommends checking with health departments of the country you may visit to find out what national guidelines dentist have to follow and checking out the ww.osap.org page where there is a travel guideline as well.
Proper infection control procedures and sterile water when performing dental work are two things that can be problems overseas, the association said.
Rick Wade, a spokesman for the American Hospital Association, said that carefully considering the qualifications and credentials of an overseas hospital and the doctors that will care for you are important, but there's another, more intangible issue, to consider.
"Do you feel comfortable being that far away from your home and family?" he asked. "Do you want to travel half a world away to get medical care when you could get that care half a county away?"
PLANET HOSPITAL
The rising cost of medical care, the huge numbers of uninsured people in the United States and the struggle for many businesses to keep up with health insurance costs are likely to mean more medical and dental patients seeking care overseas, said Rudy Rupak, founder of Planet Hospital.
Rupak started Planet Hospital in 2002. He said the company now serves about five patients a day, helping them arrange travel, medical care, find a doctor, a hospital and anything else they might need to make the trip overseas for medical care.
"We knew the No. 1 concern from day one would be to make sure they (patients) got good care," Rupak said. "The prices are extremely low, so we knew what we wanted to focus on was quality of care."
Rupak said his company also helps foreign patients travel to America for their care.
"In the Middle East, the government pays for the health care. There's only one cardiologist for every 45,000 people in Bahrain," he said.
Many patients from the Middle East travel to America for heart procedures, he said.
Rupak said about 50 percent of the business is cosmetic or other elective surgery.
Both Rupak and Bender said some small companies and self-insured companies have started to consider the possibilities of utilizing medical care overseas to help defray some of the costs of providing health care for their employees.
"There are a lot of brokers that are marketing this stuff, trying to give you the feeling it's a big trend and everyone is doing it. I think it has limited appeal," Wade said.
"It's a comment on the disarray that the American health insurance industry is in today," he said. "The situation with health insurance and health care costs is out of control. If we can begin to solve those problems, it (medical tourism) will be something only a few people are likely to consider."
Medical Tourism: It's Not Just For Nose Jobs Anymore
* A hip replacement costs a U.S. insurer somewhere between $18,281 and $26,407 in the United States. The retail price for someone paying cash would be between $43,780 and $63,238. In India, the same procedure will cost $9,000 and in Thailand, about $12,000.
* A gastric bypass in the U.S. costs an insurance company about $27,717 to $40,035. The retail price on it is $47,988 to $69,316. In India it's about $11,000 and approximately $15,000 in Thailand or Singapore.0 -
its less hassle,(no wait) a holiday thrown in, & costs ??? less....[:)]
all the immegrants from the east/asia have ***ked our health care...
so, lets recover ,get the best treatment & chill with a nice drink in the sunshine...[;)] & just over the road!![^]0 -
I found out today that ANY person from the Island of Palau who gets Cancer,
get's 100% free medical care AND AIR travel to get to Hawaii for treatment.
Not even American Veterans get that level of care.[V]0
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