Outsourcing medical care

More Americans and other nationals are traveling to Thailand for health care. A heart bypass costs 8-15K instead of 25-35K in the U.S. and arguably the service is better. In addition to a good doctor they will give you limo pick-up and convalescence time in a hotel. You can get a nose job for less than a quarter of the price. If you are uninsured, lightly insured, or stuck in a Canadian queue, why not go abroad for your care? Some Thai hotels are helping to organize care services, in conjunction with medical providers. In 2002 Thai hospitals treated 308,000 patients from abroad.

Are you interested? Check out this site and hope they learned more medicine than English grammar. Nonetheless the doctors are promoted: "Asians often seem to do well in high tech academics... not that well in football, but often very well in the class room / laboratory... pretty good in baseball & gymnastics.."

The suppliers offer their own caveat, however: "I probably wouldn't have Siamese Twins separated in Siam!"

Worry all you want, the bottom line is that one root canal pays for a luxury vacation.

Singapore and India also are taking in foreign patients, 200,000 and 10,000 accordingly, with predicted growth for the future. Medical products are being outsourced to Asia as well, with significant cost savings.

In an age of skyrocketing medical costs, and pressing fiscal problems, surely this is good news. The thing is, other forms of outsourcing are also good for both your wealth and your health, and for the same reasons.

Some of the information in this post is from the recent Business Week article "Sand, Sun, and Surgery," not yet on-line.