Individuals saving thousands of dollars by having elective surgery abroad is just part of the story. More and more U.S. insurance companies are providing a medical tourism option for their clients. A recent USA Today article reports that “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.”
In addition, the very fact that the medical tourism option exists fosters healthy competition, allowing U.S. insurance companies (or whoever ends up being our ‘provider’) to negotiate better rates on procedures right here in the United States.
USA Today reports that “Shortly after Hartford, Conn.-based Aetna Inc. and the Maine-based grocery chain Hannaford Bros. Co. launched a program to send patients to Singapore for hip and knee replacements, some New England hospitals countered with their own deals. So far, three patients have benefited from the competitive pricing; Hannaford has sent no one overseas, even though the program pays travel and lodging costs.”
Everywhere you look, newspapers and magazines are reporting on Americans going abroad for elective procedures and saving thousands, or even tens of thousands of dollars. For example,
Elizabeth Kunz of South Carolina needed eight crowns, a filling and a root canal. Though she had insurance, the procedures would have cost around $10,000 in the U.S. Her insurance company, BlueCross BlueShield, said they’d pay for her to see a dentist in Costa Rica. She booked a trip. The work cost her $2,800.
Ben Schreiner, 63, also of South Carolina, was going to wait until he turned 65 (and qualified for Medicare) to have his hernia surgery. Without Medicare, but with his current medical insurance, he would have had to pay a $10,000 deductible. After hearing about medical tourism, he did some research, and then flew to Costa Rica for the surgery. He ended up spending $4,400, including travel expenses.
Some say that medical tourism is not yet common enough to play a role in health care reform. Paul Keckley, executive director of the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, estimates that medical tourism spending accounted for no more 1% of the $2.36 trillion spent on health care in the United States in 2007.
But the practice is on the rise. And knowing that many Americans must go abroad to afford the medical care they need gives the push for health care reform even more urgency.
Photo by Erin Van Rheenen: Children’s examination room, at Hospital CIMA in Escazú, Costa Rica.
