Medical Tourism
After getting a U.S. estimate for a new hip at over $78,000,
Michael Shopenn…chose to have his hip replaced in 2007 at a private hospital outside Brussels for $13,660. That price included not only a hip joint, made by Warsaw-based Zimmer Holdings, but also all doctors’ fees, operating room charges, crutches, medicine, a hospital room for five days, a week in rehab and a round-trip ticket from America.
But the amenities are not great:
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital…had “comfortable waiting rooms, an elegant lobby and newsstands,” Mr. Shopenn remembered.
But in Belgium, he said, “I was immediately scared because at first I thought, this is really old. The chairs in the waiting rooms were metal, the walls were painted a pale green, there was no gift shop. But then I realized everything was new. It was just functional. There wasn’t much of a nod to comfort because they were there to provide health care.”
Source: NYT.
“There wasn’t much of a nod to comfort because they were there to provide health care”
Makes sense
That is what they are there to do. Most countries don’t care about comfort as much as america does.
“So why are implant list prices so high, and rising by more than 5 percent a year? In the United States, nearly all hip and knee implants — sterilized pieces of tooled metal, plastic or ceramics — are made by five companies, which some economists describe as a cartel.”
The hip replacement cartel.
Look how deeply they have sunk their hooks in:
“Though the five companies make similar models, each cultivates intense brand loyalty through financial ties to surgeons and the use of a different tool kit and operating system for the installation of its products; orthopedists typically stay with the system they learned on”
3rd party payment has definitely inflated the prices
It has to be obvious to these people by now that they are making things worse…. maybe they just don’t care.
Maybe they don’t think that making it worse is bad?
The price of hip replacements can vary from $12,000 to $120,000. Hospital list prices don’t mean much. But the actual price insurers and employers pay can vary by anywhere from $20,000 to $80,000. Medicare likely pays less than $20,000 for most hip replacements. Why policy makers, insurers and employers tolerate this much variation is hard to fathom. For health economists, the solution is simple — expose patients to more cost-sharing. But many policy makers oppose this idea.
That would definitely help.
In 2008, this became an issue for Americans using medical tourism to go to India to get medical work done. It is probably more safe to go to Brussels than India, because they have better enforced health-code regulations etc.
Although a fine report, the reporter missed the forest for the trees (as usual). Car companies, phone companies, and Proctor & Gamble all roll out new models every year, which they assert are “new and improved”. And yet prices for those goods and services come down.
The rolling out of new models of medical devices is not the problem. As noted above, it is the predominance of third-party payment where it is not necessary.
Also, I wonder if the Belgian patients get the same treatment as the American patient? Or, as dependents on national health insurance, are they less useful to the Belgian hospitals than foreign patients?
What is interesting about health care is that democratic governments hold their own citizens captive to a national system, while the same citizens can take advantage of free choice if they cross their own border.
I’ve hard anecdotes (from Canadian doctors) that American patients in Canadian hospitals get better care than Canadians, because U.S. insurers pay more than the provincial health plans.
Maybe we need a study of cross-border medical tourism within the developed democracies, to measure this phenomenon.