Mag Lev and China

Re: [spiers] Medical outsourcing

Yes, he Thais are moviing up fast in medicine... a partner of mine in Hong Kong
has cancer of
the tongue, and chose a hospital in Thailand to take care of it. He could
afford just about any
doctor anywhere, but he chose the best, who happened to be cheap.

My mother got dinged $250 for a one block ambulance ride, required if the
insurance was to
cover her hospital spell. It took four hours to arrange. Well, very quickly
round trip airfare
and hotel starts to look cheap compared to USA, where we pay more for
everything.

I have a sister and bro-in-law in Thailand, working on Thai oil projects (with
oil at $60/
barrel, everyone has oil reserves... hmmm... how come as more oil comes up out
of the
ground, price does not go down? Interference somewhere...) Anyway, they have
all their
medical stuff done there, and my sister flew my nephew out to have some dental
work done
in thailand. Why, if something is not done about this trend, we might see
reform of medicine
in USA!

When the Soviets built the Berlin Wall, they said it was to keep the criminals
(capitalists) out of
the socialist paradise. Of course, the Wall was really meant to keep the
eastern europeans
locked in.

By the way, how is that wall along the Mexican border coming along?

John

On Tue, 13 Jun 2006 21:29:03 -0700, Paul Snyder
wrote :

>
> I just picked up an old issue of Newsweek magazine, I think it was
> dated May. Much to my surprise and pleasure, they reported on a
> variety of medical outsourcing firms, which has been an intermittent
> topic in this forum. Apparently, there are already companies in the
> States that coordinate the entire process, travel, hospital, hotel
> afterwards, flights, and any insurance processing. I was surprised
> that Thailand's Bumrangrad hospital has increased their menu beyond
> boob jobs (which I heard about sometime back - not for myself - mine
> are large enough) to include joint replacement and angioplasty! The
> other players mentioned are India and Singapore. One point mentioned
> is the fact that those countries have no laws protecting the patient
> against malpractice. Interesting - I suppose quality and reputation
> will determine success of these hospitals. Hmmmm, there's an idea.....
>
> But what really caught my eye was a self-insured medium-sized company
> in the States (in an unrelated business) that incentivizes their
> employees by offering them over $1000 if they get sick and fly to
> India (with their partner) to get treated, but no incentive if they
> go to Blue Cross. The company wins, and the employee profits. And
> the couple gets a vacation break as part of the deal.
>
> So I am very encouraged that there will be a solution offered to the
> American health-care idiocy.
>
>
> Paul Snyder
> psnyder@alumni.caltech.edu

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