Good article in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette online edition has an article that is a good read about some experiences of a few patients who have had overseas medical care, including one individual who had back surgery at Bumrungrad Hospital. After getting an estimate of $70,000 for the procedure in the U.S., $14,000 of which would have been out of pocket, he had surgery instead at Bumrungrad, with out of pocket expenses for the medical care, extra days in the hospital, and air travel for two people totaling $7,000.
The article also has some good statistics on the level of uninsured individuals in teh U.S. and numbers of people seeking overseas health care. While the cost factor is driving most of those numbers, those who have already had treatment abroad are drawn for repeat visits to places like Thailand for the superior care, not just the prices.
Another popular destination for medical care for Americans is Costa Rica. The prices don’t compete with Asia, however. Gastric banding surgery, for example, costs $16,000 in Costa Rica while at Yanhee Hospital in Bangkok, one of the world’s largest cosmetic surgery hospitals, it costs $8,400. The only competitive edge Costa Rica offers is a shorter flight from the U.S.
In the article Bumrungrad spokeman Ruben Toral is quoted as saying that a major reason that costs are so much lower in Thailand is lower malpractice insurance premiums. While a U.S. doctor may pay malpractice insurance premiums as high as $100,000 per year doctors in Thailand pay around $5,000. That huge difference goes right to the root of the cost equation. Doctors can be sued in Thailand but windfall awards of millions of dollars for pain and suffering are not awarded. The result is that all patients benefit from world class care at reasonable prices.
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