HealthAbroad.net: Point of View

Michael Moore is at it again, for better or for worse. Sicko, his new flick on the state of the American healthcare system is creating quite a media buzz at Cannes. Knowing that he is a bit of a rabble rouser and enjoys getting under the skin of his detractors, this new production is surely going to start a fiery debate. So put on the warpaint and please don’t bring a knife to a gun fight!

Under its “Comment is Free” section, The Guardian carries an interesting piece on his film. The views expressed are solely of the writers and we do not subscribe to or reject them. This is only an FYI.

A few numbers from the article-

1. 50 million Americans have no healthcover
2. 250 million American who do have healthcover are denied treatment when they need it.

I personally can’t wait to see the film. Watch the official trailer here.

An interview with Dr. Jason Yap on how and why Singapore is promoting medical tourism in a big way. Dr. Yap is the Director of Information Services of the Singapore Medicine section of the Singapore Tourism Board.

A few things to point out from the interview:

• in 2006, more than 400,000 patients came to Singapore with a majority from neighboring South East Asian countries and others from the Middle East, North America and Europe.

• Patients are seeking out Singapore for high end, complex and research driven elective surgeries such as pediatric luekemia, bone marrow transplants, cancer treatments in addition to the usual knee and hip replacements.

• Singapore is marginally more expensive than India but also benefits from having better infrastructure. A knee replacement which costs around $40,000 in the US, costs around $9000 in Singapore and around $6,000 in India.

p.s- Very informative blog as well.

A study released yesterday has found that American hospitals are charging uninsured patients as much as two and a half times more than those with health insurance. The American Hospital Association (AHA), which represents the country’s 5,000 or so hospitals in its rebuttal said that the report was out of date and methodogically flawed.

So how are rates fixed in American hospitals?

Hospitals set rates based on a list called the chargemaster, which is generally believed to inflate prices substantially, in the belief that prices will come down during a negotiation process.

But patients without health insurance, about 45 million of them in the US, lack the ability to negotiate and with hospitals only meant to earn 10 cents on every dollar charged to uninsured patients, they have to bear the economic burden of medicare.

The study is authored by Gerard Anderson, Director of the Center for Hospital Finance and Management at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Public Health.

Approximately 45 million Americans lack medical insurance and the in his latest State of the Union address, George W. Bush promised healthcare reform to reach out to the uninsured and under-insured.

However, Uwe Reinhardt - Professor of Political Economy at Princeton’s University’s Woodrow Wilson School and an authority on healthcare economics, in an interview with the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) has said that universal health insurance coverage is feasable only if with an infusion of $100 billion a year and with the allocation increasing at about 7% to 8% per year.

…Reinhardt contends that the Bush administration’s proposed tax code reform - which would allow a standard deduction of $7,500 for individuals and $15,000 for families who obtain health insurance on their own or through an employer - “still perpetuates an inequity that’s always been in that code — namely, that high-income people benefit more.”

The entire interview can be read here (with subscription only)

According to the HR Magazine, published by the Society for Human Resource Management, medical tourism could become an option in employer sponsored health plans. The article can only be accessed through subscription but the NY Times reports, that clearly the price of medical tourism appeals to employers who are faced with rising health care costs and operating costs.

According to examples cited in the article “Going the Distance for Health Savings,” the cost of sending a worker overseas for procedures like removing a gallbladder can be at least 50 percent less than that of having the work done in the United States, even if the employer pays for the worker to spend recovery time in a fine hotel.

Questions on quality of healthcare persist but to encourage employees to seek treatment abroad, companies are also willing to give them a percentage of what the savings.  

Useful article on how Singapore has built its reputation as the top destination for medical tourism.

Singapore Medicine, Singapore Tourism Board-Healthcare Services director Dr. Jason Yap, attests, “International patients come to Singapore for many reasons like heart and brain surgery, health screening and sometimes cancer treatment.” Why? “Because we assure them of world-class health-care system that focuses on safety and excellence,” Yap explains.

Came across this ABC News clip on youtube on the growth in medical tourism to low cost destinations across the world.

Already a popular sun and sand tourist spot for Europeans, Tunisia is striving to diversify its tourism industry by focusing on medical tourism and especially plastic surgery. With flying time being a criteria for reimbursement for many insurers in Europe, Tunisia being an hour’s flight away from Europe is ideally located to cash in. 

A breast operation that costs 20,000 British Pound in the UK costs about 8,500 Euros in Tunisia. However, the industry is still in its infancy. While some 100,000 people have plastic surgery in the UK each year, Tunisia drew only 500 tourists for surgery last year.

With around 40 million uninsured Americans looking for cheap medicare and healthcare in Europe affected by high costs and long waiting periods, travel experts say that medical tourism will continue to be a popular trend in 2007. Read here.

Good blog by an intrepid German, now residing in Bali, on medical tourism to Asia and the slow decline of medicare in Europe.

…over the years of the last 2 decades - Europe lost its edge as a leading and competitive healthcare market. Too many beneficiaries but too few paying customers. Always make an even balance for everyone. Where is the grounds or basis for competition, or the means of offering the best possible solution for a competitive price? Value for money anyone? Somehow it got lost along the way.

The US have problems as well, although quite a bit different. The healthcare system is state of the art; the main problem is, most people can’t afford it and lot’s don’t even have a health insurance.

The writer also writes about his own experiences with medicare in Asia - Singapore and Thailand. Also watchout for the cost comparison for medical procedures in the US and India. Very useful.