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| Why even consider medical treatment from overseas? |
Successive US governments have failed to deliver
According to the Census Bureau’s 2005 Current Population Survey (CPS), there were 45.8 million uninsured individuals in 2004, or 15.7% of the civilian non-institutionalized population.
The US continues to have the dubious distinction of being the only major nation in the industrialized world not to provide health coverage for all. All this has direct implications for you as a consumer of healthcare.
Successive administrations, both Democrats and Republicans have attempted to reform health care in the United States but have failed. America’s healthcare system is mostly based on a for profit and employment supported model.
The Commonwealth Fund is a private foundation working towards a high performance health system. In a study spanning most of the developed world, it found that
"Americans with below-average incomes were much more likely than their counterparts in other countries to report not visiting a physician when sick and not getting a recommended test, treatment, or follow-up care, not filling a prescription, or not seeing a dentist when needed because of costs."
Our economic world has changed
With increased globalization, the nature of employment in the United States is changing.
Traditionally, most Americans could count on employer provided healthcare and possibly even continued benefits after retirement. But, the very nature of the global economy has broken this model of stable lifetime employment.
No longer can a large section of the middle class count on a white collar career with a stable US corporation. As the US becomes a large service economy, more and more industries like food processing and restaurants employ temporary or hourly employees that do not qualify for healthcare. Large employers too are not immune to this trend. Even large white collar organizations like banks and financial institutions often find it easier to hire employees through staffing companies. As increasingly large number of Americans freelance or work for a succession of employers over a short period of time, they find that they are responsible for medical coverage for themselves and their families.
Increasingly, employers are also looking to either reduce the healthcare benefits they provide or pass on more of the costs to employees.
Our social structure has changed
Depending on which numbers you look at, it seems that half of all marriages in the US will end in divorce. This means that there is another high risk group of ex-spouses that will find themselves with little or no insurance either because they no longer qualify for their former spouse’s employer plan or because they were inadequately insured to begin with, even when they were married.
American Entrepreneurship is under threat
Entrepreneurship has been the basic engine that drove economic activity and employment in the United States. Today an entrepreneur has to struggle with providing adequate healthcare not just for his family but also for his employees. With limited cash flows in the initial years, they are just a step away from financial meltdown. A single medical emergency can run up a large bill and destroy any reserves that the entrepreneur may have for his business.
One has to only look at any mainstream media to notice news stories on how traditional middle class families are being ruined by a single medical emergency. If you happen to be a part of such a group then you owe it to yourself and to your family to be aware of the healthcare options that you may have by outsourcing some of your health needs to India.
Middle class is under threat
Health care has become a leading cause of personal bankruptcy in the United States. Of the 1.57 million personal bankruptcies filed in the United States in 2002, between one-third and one-half resulted from medical bills
Some hospitals do have charity care programs that provide some free services. But given the pressure to produce better financial results and increase cash flows, some often end up billing the patients and selling the debt to a collection agency. This may lead to ruining the patient’s credit rating and increased stress for a family already under pressure.
Most uninsured often end up self medicating using the local pharmacy and the internet an advisory source. For obvious reasons, this can be a significantly dangerous situation.
We seem to have forgotten how to help ourselves
And when they do get to the hospital, they are more likely to get inadequate medical treatment. Think about it, doctors know that the uninsured are a drain on their hospital’s financials. If you had insurance, your doctor would err on the side of caution and prescribe all the tests he thought were necessary since insurance would cover the costs. But for the uninsured, just the opposite would hold true.
Also, the uninsured are least likely to visit a doctor for minor symptoms or preventative care. They will let minor conditions become worse till a day comes when they are forced to go to the ER at the hospital. Now, the emergency room is most likely to just stabilize a critically ill patient just enough to be able to discharge them quickly. With no continuing care and therapy, the person will most probably be back in emergency care, still not have insurance and continue to get inadequate care.
Also, the uninsured don’t have the benefit of pre-negotiated insurance rates. The large insurance companies obviously can negotiate a much better deal. On the other hand, the individual uninsured person who had to go to the hospital as a last resort, is given none of the benefits of the negotiated rates. So, ironically, the person who can afford it the least, is billed the most!!
So, suddenly the person who least could afford insurance is trapped into a debt cycle and starts to struggle to keep up the payments. His credit history will most probably get ruined and since most employers run a credit check, he will be less likely to find a stable job. And hence, he will be even less likely to be able to afford insurance.
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