American Medical Refugees: The Failure of the For Profit Health Care System

Oct. 18, 2006 -- Dismayed by high surgical costs in the U.S., increasing numbers of American patients are packing their bags to have necessary surgery performed in countries such as India, Thailand, and Singapore.

"This is not what is sometimes snootily referred to as 'medical tourism,' in which people go abroad for elective plastic surgery," says Mark D. Smith, MD, MBA, president and chief executive officer of the California HealthCare Foundation in Oakland.
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"Cost is a major factor," Bali tells WebMD. Some examples: Wockhardt Hospitals usually charge $6,000-$8,000 for coronary bypass surgery, $6,500 for a joint replacement, and $6,500 for a hip resurfacing, which represent a small fraction of the typical costs at U.S. hospitals.
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A Call for Reform
"The need for American citizens to go abroad for care -- and their willingness to do so – represents a crushing indictment of numerous myths about the U.S. health care system that have gained popular currency in recent years," says Peter Budetti, MD, JD, chairman of the department of health administration and policy at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. Budetti was not involved in the report.

Budetti says the report dispels the myths that "foreign systems of universal coverage are so flawed that people in those countries who can afford to do so flock to the U.S. for care; that our health care is the best in the world; that everyone in the U.S. will get the care they need whether they can afford to pay for it or not; and, most telling, that increased consumer cost-sharing will reduce cosmetic or other nonessential care, not medically necessary care.
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