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My adventures in medical tourism

chrisstucchio.com

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Re: My adventures in medical tourism

#81

Post by dangerpowpow »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #73
tzs wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

India's system works efficiently and simply for those who can afford it, which is a minority of the Indian population. For the ~70% of Indians in rural areas, and especially the ~50% who are living in poverty, they often have little access to health care. What they do have access to is often substandard.

India is poor. Half of it's people don't even have a flush toilet and many don't even have clean water. This is not some failing of the medical system, it's just a failing of India to be a wealthy developed nation.

source?

Re: My adventures in medical tourism

#82

Post by s73v3r »

jasonlotito wrote: post #43
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.

> Health care in the US is just fucked, and everyone knows it. And yet people still move here for the "fucked" health care because it's cheaper, better, and available unlike other countries held in high regard, such as Canada. I am one such person who was lucky enough to be able to do that, and would never return to Canada after the abusive treatment handed out by the health care "professionals."

Nobody has ever said that US healthcare was cheaper. Not one.

Re: My adventures in medical tourism

#83

Post by s73v3r »

solutionyogi wrote: post #2

I am originally from India and came to the US 10 years ago. I still can't believe that you can not call up a doctor/clinic/hospital in US and get a price quote for something routine. Chris's experience is representative of what one can expect from the Indian health care system. If you are a working, middle class person, the free market health care works extremely well.

"If you are a working, middle class person, the free market health care works extremely well."

And if you're not?

Re: My adventures in medical tourism

#84

Post by clamprecht »

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…

Take a look at http://reddit.com/r/personalfinance for a few weeks and you will see that there really is a problem.

Re: My adventures in medical tourism

#85

Post by Spooky23 »

mikecsh wrote: post #63
jasonlotito wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does this have to do with my experience with Canada's health care system? I'm merely stating the facts of what my family had to go through and experienced with Canada's lack of mental health care support for my children, and the results. Edit: Because you decided to edit your comment. Here are some other numbers for you. -14 days vs 2+ years: US wait time vs Canada wait time to get help for my autistic son. We h…

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…

If you have good insurance, I can't imagine the US not being top of the heap.

I had an injury that resulted in a spinal fusion and other surgery at 25. Total out of pocket cost for about $250k of care and full recovery was about $500. That included second opinion visits to top doctors in Boston & NYC.

If you're on limited network Obamacare with high deductibles and HMO bullshit, good luck.

Re: My adventures in medical tourism

#86

Post by yummyfajitas »

dangerpowpow wrote: post #81
yummyfajitas wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

India is poor. Half of it's people don't even have a flush toilet and many don't even have clean water. This is not some failing of the medical system, it's just a failing of India to be a wealthy developed nation.

source?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_supply_and_sanitation_in...

I think 50% of the population engaging in open defecation is even higher than San Fransisco.

Re: My adventures in medical tourism

#87

Post by FireBeyond »

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…

Not three years ago, with "comprehensive" insurance, I paid $7000 for a kidney stone, with a full total approaching $50-60K.

For a kidney stone. I had to have two surgical procedures, admittedly - they went in to remove the stone, found long-standing infection, closed up and catheterized. A week of antibiotics later I had it shocked.

But still... $60K for a kidney stone.

Re: My adventures in medical tourism

#88

Post by s73v3r »

jerf wrote: post #23
lbhnact wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine how much a hassle car repairs would be if cars were a staggeringly complex biological system where parts could not be replaced figuring out what was wrong was difficult and all work had to be done in while it was driving down the road and it was really easy for you to die if a mistake was made and other people had to pay for it.

Are Indian humans made out of simpler parts, such that it's OK for them to have free market health care whereas it doesn't work for us?

No, it's that they don't care about people not being able to get care, whereas we at least try to care about it.

Re: My adventures in medical tourism

#89

Post by [deleted] »

ashark wrote: post #47
jasonlotito wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Health care in the US is just fucked, and everyone knows it. And yet people still move here for the "fucked" health care because it's cheaper, better, and available unlike other countries held in high regard, such as Canada. I am one such person who was lucky enough to be able to do that, and would never return to Canada after the abusive treatment handed out by the health care "professionals."

So I suppose there's a serious movement to reform their healthcare system to be more like ours? Maybe also in all the other universal healthcare-having countries with advanced economies (so, the entire rest of the OECD states, more or less)?

[deleted]

Re: My adventures in medical tourism

#90

Post by jessaustin »

tahoeskibum wrote: post #17

One thing I've never understood about the US system is why do the doctors charge more for paying cash e.g. $200 for a visit, whereas insurance reimburses them less than half e.g. $80. In everything else e.g. car repairs, the cash price is always lower than insurance covered price. Any ideas why this is so?

This isn't universal. Several times I've gone to "urgent care" clinics for e.g. persistent illness without insurance, and my bill showed a 50% discount for paying cash. Perhaps if I had had the right insurance the effective discount would have been even higher, but it makes sense that cash is worth more to a provider than an insurance claim that might be disputed or delayed. This is kind of the "sweet spot" for cash, though. For more expensive procedures even a 50% discount wouldn't make it easy to pay cash. Anyway, it's clear that a portion of the high prices for care in USA are specifically for dealing with insurance companies, both for "negotiating room" and to compensate for the hours that must be spent every day dealing with insurance companies.
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