Today’s ( Sunday October 15) NYT Business section has an article called Medical Tourism which means people are taking vacations in places like India,Thailand and other countries where the cost of expensive medical procedures is very low (about 80% lower than the US).The medical centers in India are specifically geared to treat people from Western Nations and have the latest technology,first rate surgeons and support staff.It cited the example of one person who had open heart surgery for about $8000 all inclusive.That means it not merely included all his medical fees, hospital stay but threw in a couple of weeks worth of luxury vacation.The patient said he avoided going into deep debt because he got the procedure done in India.
India, once again, is in the forefront of this wave of medical tourism.With a large number of highly trained and skilled physicians and surgeons and almost unlimited capital to invest in latest medical centers it is moving fast to capture the huge market of people in the US and Europe and Japan who cannot afford the medical care at home.
Along with IT ,India’s dominance of medical services threatens to cut the ground from under a segment of our population that is used to high incomes,and a large segment that provides support to the highly trained physicians and surgeons.This segment has been pretty much unscathed in the outsourcing era but is going to feel the tsunami of outsourcing that is coming as insurance companies and even governmental organizations feel the pressure to reduce costs.
I will say this.As a person who has to obtain insurance for my own family’s needs, I welcome anything that lowers my bills.But over the long terms, this is going to hurt my children’s prospects for work that they love and enjoy doing.
