Is this where we're headed if HCR doesn't get done right?
Insurance companies are launching pilot programs to send patients to India, Costa Rica, Singapore and beyond to reduce their payouts on procedures such as knee replacement and heart bypass. I can't imagine this idea going over well with the "Patriots" shouting invective at town hall meetings. I can just hear them howling if ideas such as this came from our side in the health care debate.
USA Today
Insurers aim to save from overseas medical tourism
==snip==
As Washington searches for ways to tame the country's escalating health care costs, more insurers are offering networks of surgeons and dentists in places like India and Costa Rica, where costs can be as much as 80% less than in America.
Until recently, most Americans traveling abroad for cheaper non-emergency medical care were either uninsured or wealthy. But the profile of medical tourists is changing. Now, they are more likely to be people covered by private insurers, which are looking to keep costs from spiraling out of control.
More below:
Cont. from the article linked above:
The four largest commercial U.S. health insurers — with enrollments totaling nearly 100 million people — have either launched pilot programs offering overseas travel or explored it. Several smaller insurers and brokers also have introduced travel options for hundreds of employers around the country.
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Overseas care can lead to price breaks of more than $40,000, not counting travel costs, for procedures like knee replacement surgery or heart bypasses. Insurers, or employers who provide their own insurance, can save between 50% and 90% on major medical claims, said Jonathan Edelheit, president of the Florida-based Medical Tourism Association. A lower cost of living and lower prices for medical supplies and drugs help drive down care costs overseas compared to American providers.
I find this prospect alarming. The article notes that insurance companies are meanwhile busy providing liability insurance to employers who adopt this plan, in case things don't go well in that Thai hospital, since "employers who encourage an overseas medical trip could become litigation targets" and "[i]t can be difficult to sue an overseas provider in U.S. courts."
From a trade magazine, we learn that they're all getting in on it, sometimes encouraged by employers looking to save money:
MANAGED CARE March 2008
Aetna and Hannaford Make a Singapore Connection
Some insurers are taking tentative steps toward developing global provider networks for corporate clients
==snip==
At least one national insurer thinks that the future of this kind of business will hinge heavily on whether American providers will be willing to compete on cost with physicians and hospitals around the globe. That could make global networks a new weapon in the unending tussle over steadily rising health care expenses. And it could put doctors and other providers in the same boat with software engineers and others who now have to compete with lower-cost providers in India, China, and elsewhere.
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“They’re all looking at it,” says Taylor. “They are looking at the facilities and doing the due diligence. It is edging forward. And there is more interest this year than last year. Of course, if another large influential employer working with United or Cigna or even Anthem says that it wants to do it, I’m sure that insurer will try to accommodate them. The national account business is so hard to get that they’re going to want to do this. And if a couple of employers that other employers know and trust are willing to give something a shot and it works out reasonably well, others will follow.”
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Not all insurers are being brought into the game by big clients. BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina took a hard look at foreign medical networks and decided to jump in.
Last year that company set up Companion Global Healthcare to coordinate travel to international hospitals. But its sights have always been set on recruiting businesses interested in lowering the cost of care.
Is this the future of American health care if we don't get real reform? Insurance companies shunning American medical professionals in favor of outsourcing procedures overseas, so they can save enough dough to buy another corporate jet and award themselves more stock options?*
*In 2007, [Aetna CEO Ronald] Williams pulled down $40.2 million of compensation, but $32.8 million of that was the value of exercising stock options granted in previous years.
How would you like to be told by your health insurance provider that, in order to get that bypass that you need, you'll have to fly to India and check into the hospital there?
I think I'm beginning to understand what the Republican, "free market," alternative is to real health care reform. Buckle your seat belts. Literally.