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My adventures in medical tourism

chrisstucchio.com

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Re: My adventures in medical tourism

#131

Post by Fomite »

akg_67 wrote: post #113
JamesBarney wrote: post #78

It's true that healthcare is terrible in the U.S. if you don't have health insurance, but he overstates his case. Chris compares a 1 in a 1000 nightmare scenario to his very average experience. A $112,000 error happens in the U.S. but is rare. Typically the type of surgery he mentions costs between $20,000-$50,000. Or 50-100% of a the U.S. gdp per capita. This is smaller than in India where the cost of his surgery wa…

As a patient, US healthcare is terrible even if you have health insurance. Patient is at the bottom of totem pole in US healthcare, and just a number for doctors, hospitals and insurance companies and everyone else involved in the system. Just a couple of anecdotal personal recent experiences with US healthcare. 1. Recently I witnessed the trouble my primary care physician (PCP) had to go through with insurance compa…

Have you considered that discharging patients to their home, and moderating their pain medication, may actually be signs of quality care? "The patient gets what they want" is not the only sign of quality.

Re: My adventures in medical tourism

#132

Post by squozzer »

Discussion of cost-effective alternatives is almost pointless now that we have the ACA, which is effectively a transfer of wealth from individuals to insurance companies for the sole privilege of breathing.

Oops, forgot at include dying also.

Re: My adventures in medical tourism

#133

Post by mikecsh »

Fomite wrote: post #129
mikecsh wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Im sorry to hear that you had bad experiences in Canada. However your personal story is effectively one data point and not necessarily representative of a good comparison between healthcare systems. This analysis is a pretty good overall analysis of the quality, efficacy and safety of different healthcare systems. That’s not to say that just because the US is worse overall that it doesn’t perform better in a subset o…

Keep in mind many of the statistics you posted - healthy lives, health equity, access to care, etc. are extremely important on a population health level (says the Epidemiologist...) but not necessarily for any particular individual, especially one with the money to spend.

Absolutely!

Re: My adventures in medical tourism

#134

Post by eric_h »

Fomite wrote: post #131
akg_67 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a patient, US healthcare is terrible even if you have health insurance. Patient is at the bottom of totem pole in US healthcare, and just a number for doctors, hospitals and insurance companies and everyone else involved in the system. Just a couple of anecdotal personal recent experiences with US healthcare. 1. Recently I witnessed the trouble my primary care physician (PCP) had to go through with insurance compa…

Have you considered that discharging patients to their home, and moderating their pain medication, may actually be signs of quality care? "The patient gets what they want" is not the only sign of quality.

That is certainly true. Nevertheless, I believe the parent's point stands. "Gamifying" metrics such as time-to-discharge and pain medication usage will certainly alter the incentives of such an institution.

Re: My adventures in medical tourism

#135

Post by laurencerowe »

arethuza wrote: post #92
SimpleXYZ wrote: post #74

Socialized medicine or a pure capitalistic system would both be preferable to the current system in the US. Right now it's the worst of both worlds.

Even here in the UK - where we do have a socialist health care system there is still the option of going private. The only option you don't get if you are a normal tax payer is opting out of paying for the state funded healthcare - which is fine as far as I am concerned.

The US spends almost exactly the same proportion of GDP on public healthcare as the UK (~7.3%) but because the system is so horribly wasteful it gets much less for its money. (Much of healthcare spending is on the old who are covered by public Medicare because private insurance would be unaffordable.)

UK: 8.8% of GDP total spending, of which 83.3% public = 7.33%. http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/psa/expenditure-on-healthcare-...

US: 15.2% of GDP total spending of which 48% ($3,426/$7,146 per capita) public = 7.28% https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_the_United_Stat...

Edit: The 2014 figures are even worse. 17.5% of GDP total spending of which 28% federal and 17% state and local = 7.88% of GDP public expenditure. https://www.cms.gov/research-statistics-data-and-systems/sta...

Re: My adventures in medical tourism

#136

Post by diebir »

This guy is either an idiot or tries to sell something. More like both.

He goes around self treating a serious spine condition, trying to find a doc to inject steroids for cash (which is treating the symptoms, not the root cause).

Then he goes for a surgery in some third world place "because it's cheap"; a surgery on his spine no less, where he may or may not ever walk again if something goes wrong.

Then, he touts a quick recovery, he being, from what he looks like, about 30 years old.

Give me a friggin break.

I am not "buying a surgery for cash" for something as critical as my spine. Or knees. Or appendectomy. Or anything else.

Re: My adventures in medical tourism

#137

Post by iamthepieman »

diebir wrote: post #136

This guy is either an idiot or tries to sell something. More like both. He goes around self treating a serious spine condition, trying to find a doc to inject steroids for cash (which is treating the symptoms, not the root cause). Then he goes for a surgery in some third world place "because it's cheap"; a surgery on his spine no less, where he may or may not ever walk again if something goes wrong. Then, he touts a…

What are you buying it with then? Good will, bitcoins, large assets or perhaps something else?

I think I may be misunderstanding you. Did you mean that you aren't going to base a major health care purchase on cost alone? That certainly makes sense but it also makes sense to me that cost is indeed a factor even if its not as important to you as it is to the OP.

Re: My adventures in medical tourism

#138

Post by yummyfajitas »

drumdance wrote: post #128
clamprecht wrote: post #26

I should mention that Paul Buchheit wants to fund the Uber of medical tourism: https://twitter.com/paultoo/status/566379518261088258 The tweet: "I want to fund the 'Uber' of medical tourism Needs 5 star service, simplicity and safety Let me know if you apply - http://www.ycombinator.com/apply/" It really has to happen. Health care in the US is just fucked, and everyone knows it.

I don't see how this helps people who are the most fucked: the working poor.

Because they can spend less money on medicine?

Re: My adventures in medical tourism

#139

Post by yummyfajitas »

diebir wrote: post #136

This guy is either an idiot or tries to sell something. More like both. He goes around self treating a serious spine condition, trying to find a doc to inject steroids for cash (which is treating the symptoms, not the root cause). Then he goes for a surgery in some third world place "because it's cheap"; a surgery on his spine no less, where he may or may not ever walk again if something goes wrong. Then, he touts a…

What did I "self treat"? My doctor in India recommended the steroid injection in order to enable me to travel and a first world doctor provided the service. Treating symptoms well enough so that I can travel was the only purpose - the discectomy is what actually solved the problem.

If you want to spend extra money on a non-Indian doctor living in America, have fun. I don't plan to do the same - I've generally found care in India to be equal or superior to care in the US.

I'm not sure what you think I'm selling. I did name drop the doctor/hospital where I went, but they've paid me nothing and probably have no idea I wrote this post.

Re: My adventures in medical tourism

#140

Post by yummyfajitas »

laurencerowe wrote: post #135
arethuza wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even here in the UK - where we do have a socialist health care system there is still the option of going private. The only option you don't get if you are a normal tax payer is opting out of paying for the state funded healthcare - which is fine as far as I am concerned.

The US spends almost exactly the same proportion of GDP on public healthcare as the UK (~7.3%) but because the system is so horribly wasteful it gets much less for its money. (Much of healthcare spending is on the old who are covered by public Medicare because private insurance would be unaffordable.) UK: 8.8% of GDP total spending, of which 83.3% public = 7.33%. http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/psa/expenditure-on-healt…

India: 4%.

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.XPD.TOTL.ZS

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