Need surgery? Then it’s time to plan a trip to the doctor – in Thailand.
Recently, with the high cost of health care and the long waiting lists, people in the United States who need medical treatment are booking flights to places such as Cuba, Canada, Brazil and Taiwan to undergo anything from complex specialized procedures like cardiac, cancer, dental and cosmetic surgery to simpler treatments and checkups, to psychotherapy and physical rehabilitation.
“The problems people are having paying for health care and health insurance are a central dimension of the economic and pocketbook concerns right now,” said Drew E. Altman, president of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
I agree with Altman. While I am currently on my parents’ health insurance plan, it won’t be long before I have to worry about how I’m going to get medical coverage. While this is an issue that affects citizens of all ages, it is especially hard on students preparing to graduate, who feel pressure to find a job that offers good health benefits.
As of 2007, the U.S. Census Bureau reported nearly 47 million Americans lack health insurance, and the United States is the only industrialized country that does not guarantee health coverage to its citizens.
Cuba, a country with skilled and experienced doctors, low medical prices and beaches for the recuperation period, operates on a nationalized health system, and the Cuban government actually developed Cuban medical tourism to increase revenue for the country. According to an article from caribbeannetnews.com, Cubanacan Tourism and Health provided care for a total of 19,670 tourist patients in 2006.
First jobs were outsourced to India and to sweatshops in Mexico, and now medical care is also following suit – a slap in the face for a country that prides itself in being the land of opportunity. Families are simply not able to pay the overwhelming bills with such tight budgets. As people’s salaries and the number of jobs available have been decreasing, the cost of health care has been rising – not a reassuring combination for those already struggling to make ends meet. The total cost of family health care coverage now averages $12,680 per year, a 5 percent increase since 2007.
Medical tourism, a term coined by travel agencies and the mass media, has become a national industry. Compared to how difficult it is for many people here in the United States to receive proper medical attention, shelling out somewhere between $1,000 and $2,000 for a plane ticket may seem like a worthwhile cost. The most popular place to travel for medical treatment is India, where the quality of health care is equal to anywhere else in the world at a much lower cost, according to medicaltourism.org, a Web site that provides cost-effective E-business services.
But while other countries around the world benefit from the increased revenue pouring in from the pockets of “medical tourists,” the United States continues to suffer. Though the recession is leaving citizens with even less money to pay for necessities such as medical expenses, traveling to another country for cheap health care is not the best solution. If we continue taking more money out of the U.S. economy to spend abroad, we will only make the situation worse. Of course, people in need of immediate medical attention must find the most immediate means of getting it. Still, people may want to reconsider buying that plane ticket if they don’t want to exacerbate this vicious cycle.
“Studies, policy analysts say, underscore the need for the government to address the growing unaffordability of care, despite the distraction – and cost to taxpayers – of a proposed $700 billion bailout of the financial sector,” according to a September 2008 New York Times article.
During this period of economic hardships, a person’s first reaction might be to take the easy way out. Traveling to another country for medical procedures may be a quick escape from a huge financial burden, but it will only further hurt the U.S. economy and take attention away from the pressing need to reform health care at home.
President Obama is making health care a top priority, and vowed last week at a White House forum to “end a decades-long stalemate on overhauling the health cares system,” according to a March 5 New York Times article. The details of his proposal aren’t yet laid out, but hope exists that affordable health care for all is a promise that can be fulfilled in the coming years here in the United States. Perhaps the government should consider a stimulus for the health care industry, but whatever the outcome, it’s clear that avoiding the problem and doing nothing will only cause more damage in the long run.
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