Medical Tourism isn’t like regular tourism.  It’s a euphemism for traveling to a foreign country for more affordable medical care.  And with skyrocketing health care costs in the United States, it’s becoming a reality.  Thomas Black of Bloomberg News writes that insurance companies are now offering plans that include procedures in foreign countries, in exchange for reduced premiums and out-of-pocket expenses to the policyholder.  “Yielding to pressure from employers, health insurers such as Health Net, Aetna Inc. and Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina are offering cost savings to policy holders who take their ailing backs, hips and knees to foreign countries for non-emergency medical treatment. Mexico has emerged as a favored place for American medical tourists because of its proximity and U.S. insurer incentives.”

According to Yosef Woodman, author of “Patients Beyond Borders,” about 180,000 Americans leave U.S. soil for elective medical procedures every year.  Woodman predicts 15-20% annual growth.  Even with a weakened currency, medical procedures in developing nations cost a fraction of what they cost here.  Some of the early sovereigns partaking in medicine outsourcing include: Mexico, Singapore, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Brazil.  It’s not a coincidence that these aren’t countries you’d elect travel to for non-medical tourism.  

Obviously quality of care, feasibility of follow-up care, and redressability of malpractice claims are factors.  But you (or your insurer) are paying less so you should expect less.  Or should you?  Obviously you don’t want tainted blood for a transfusion or rat droppings in the operating room, but it’s no secret that paying more isn’t necessarily associated with higher quality or better outcomes.  This is because health care in the U.S. is artificially expensive…mostly due to terribly inefficient administration and lack of price transparency.  

Ironically, these problems are caused primarily by the Medicare model espoused by the government and copied by the very insurance companies that are now incenting their customers to take it abroad…

Seems like a great business model for the time being, instead of charging ridiculous premiums, charge slightly lower premiums and cut your claims liabilities by 88% (Angioplasty can cost $84,000 in the U.S. vs. $10,000 in Mexico).  You can’t tell me margins aren’t widening here…

Curiously, I’m not against medical tourism or incentives to taking it abroad.  We live in an increasingly globlized economy…a little healthy competition might be what forces our health care system to go on a much needed diet.