Indian Medical Tourism

My Lady Love and I just spent another exciting evening at Barnes and Noble. Bashing Obama didn't appeal to me for the moment, so I shied away from books by Mark Levin and Glenn Beck. Instead, I picked up a copy of Forbes Magazine to find out what lies ahead in the investment world. Steve always writes an editorial in the first few pages, and I like to get his take on what is going on. Along with a host of other gems, he made mention of the fact that excellent health care is available in countries like India, Malaysia, and Singapore, to name a couple, and might be a viable alternative if one is paying for the treatment out of his own pocket. I had run across an advertisement a while back which invited people who needed major surgery or other treatments to come to India to have it done. The ad said that you could travel to India, get your procedure done, enjoy a nice vacation, and still spend only a fraction of what you would have to pay in the U.S. I found that I wanted to know more, so I turned to my trusty computer to enlighten myself.

The first hit told me that, in general, the Indian public health care system is really pathetic. The main problem is that, while there are very good hospitals, they are all in the cities, and the bulk of the populace is in relatively remote rural areas. People who may need treatment are generally in circumstances that make it very difficult to get to treatment centers. When they get there, they have to endure long lines, shortage of medicines and doctors, lack of sanitary facilities, and months-long waits to see a specialist. The situation is what you would find in a typical third-world country.

On the other hand, the major hospitals in the major cities, which cater to foreigners and the middle to upper classes in their own country, are top of the line, first-class operations. Steve (Forbes) mentioned some statistic that their infection rates are substantially lower than those found in U.S. hospitals. This would be really important to me. I checked out the web sites of a couple of the hospitals, and pretty much found that the care would be on a par with what we find here in the States. ( My personal doctor is from India, and I have complete confidence in him.)
Anyway, I came upon a page that listed the prices that they charge for various procedures. This is a novel idea, I thought to myself - actually knowing what the charges are ahead of time. Then I remembered that the patient pays his own bill, and it couldn't be any other way. One of the surgeries that was on the list was a heart bypass operation. One hospital charged $8941 and the other $10,000. This compared to $130,000 - $140,000 in an American hospital (their figures). The good news, beyond the price, is that the operation would normally be done within 7 - 8 days after first contact. They get a lot of business from Europe and Canada.

Anyway, I thought this might be of interest to you. Here are a couple of web sites if you want to check them out for yourself: www.allmedical tourism.com, and www.indiaprofile.com/medical tourism.

G'night!