Sometimes the thoughts exNewsed in a column strike a chord with readers. That happened last week when reform in medical care was discussed. So much of solid interest was learned from Trib readers that today's column is based on your ideas.
A gold star goes to a middle-aged business lady from the Strip District whose mother is well cared for at a residential care facility near Pittsburgh.
The suggestion is that health care facilities should be constructed in resort areas throughout the world, wherever trained medical staff -- from doctors and nurses, to cleaners and cooks -- can be found.
Each facility would be divided into wings by language or nationality. Each would have radio and television, newspapers and magazines from home. The diet would be "home cooking" and decor would be appropriate to the wing. Grandfather and Grandmother would get longer and more frequent visits from their kids and, even more important, their grandchildren. All would be happy to be going to a Club Med-style exotic resort.
While the visits would be fewer than if they were in the United States, they would be more intense, less guilt-ridden and supplemented by video phone calls.
The in-law child would not be bored and the grandkids would be happy to spend the two-weeks standard vacation engaged in resort activities, occasionally seeing their forgetful grandparents.
Let's face it. At some stage, to an aging relative tender loving care is most important. So if it is easily available at an offshore international health care facility, why keep it from them?
Of course there would be side benefits. Airlines, hotels and car rental firms would make money. And instead of aid programs, payment for services rendered would be available. Countries such as Mexico, Morocco, the Philippines and the Dominican Republic could base language and training programs for the exploding numbers of caregivers required for the baby boomers who reach the years for which they need help. The savings in health care are unbelievable. The reductions in grant aid are huge.
Learning of this concept, we expanded our search for new medical services to "medical tourism" or "health travel" -- or the crossing of international borders in search of treatment or care. We were told that at least a million Americans already travel annually looking for an affordable doctor and hospital care.
There are a lot of reasons for medical tourism: the incredibly high costs of treatment at home, the long waiting lists for some surgical procedures and age-related interference from insurance companies in America compared with the high standards inexpensively available from medical doctors in India, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore.
With even fewer health care options available than in the past, numbers of wealthy Arabs from the Gulf States with their friends from the Middle East, who once came here to be hospitalized, are now to be found in German, French and British hospitals. Our health care budgets feel the loss. As the world is getting older, our demands for sustained care and attention increase.
Everyone involved with the medical profession is affected by speed of service. In Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines or India, a wealthy patient can have an operation the day after his arrival and the costs are much lower. Indian and South African surgeons and hospitals charge patients about one-tenth of the costs that would be incurred in the United States.
Ask around and you can be selective. Heart surgery in South Africa (where procedures were first developed) costs about $15,000, while in the United States look for a gross price tag exceeding $200,000.
Cosmetic surgery takes a trip to Costa Rica and a price tag for a full face lift of about $2,000 compared with $20,000 in New York City.
Europe, France, Belgium and Slovakia are so far into the business of medical tourism that many hospitals have put a percentage limit on the relative numbers of foreign patients to locals. And Germany is the chosen country for the over-60-year-old guys from all over the world who share common problems with kidneys.
According to some researchers, the global medical tourism market may jump to a staggering $100 billion by 2012. In particular, the Asian medical tourism market should be bolstered by rising quality standards and the growing demand for compassionate, quality treatment.
After all, patients who undergo treatments in Asia often pay only 10 percent of the cost of similar treatment in the United States. What is more, countries such as South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and India have implemented state-of-the-art medical technologies that should improve care.
Combine that with the increasing sophistication of the travel industry and medical tourism growth has all the ingredients for a successful future.
There is one major drawback. Unless the care abroad is on an emergency basis, it won't be covered by your insurance company.
It might be less expensive, more compassionate and better geared to a patient's needs. But most insurance plans do not cover elective foreign care -- and certainly not care that covers you if you spend more than 30 days outside the United States.
So, let us continue spending on aid that creates dependent economies and let us accept cold, second-rate, lawyer-regulated impersonal health care that selects by age, rather than other criteria, who is eligible for what.
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