Gabriel Senior’s (Founder of Travel For Care) comments on Chrissie Long’s article “Why Rush Limbaugh would go to Costa Rica if Obama’s health care plan passes” published in the CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, and later reproduced in http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/286856.
I have heard Rush Limbaugh’s words in several occasions and have gone over some of his books, and my understanding of his recent comments is different than those of Chrissie Long’s. What I think he truly meant based not only on his comments, but also on his long and persistent opposition to President Obama’s health plan, is that he tries to convey that what the American health system badly needs is not a lot of additional regulation, and the takeover of the system by the usually inefficient and proven expensive government, but a good bit of fixing its reality by setting limits to tort law in what is referred to malpractice in medicine, and bringing up competition in the market as the natural regulator of prices.
In my opinion, Rush Limbaugh’s comments intend to convey that the need to travel out of the U.S. for medical care in the future will keep rising for Americans, as the effectiveness of a National Health System -if approved- is very much in doubt. That ineffectiveness in the National Health Services is suffered by Canadians, the English, and Costa Ricans alike. They all admit it too, but they all put up to the problems and inefficiencies of their systems in their own belief that theirs is the only way to have a General Health System. Why does America have to push for more government intervention and regulation to solve its problem instead of continuing to pursue its immensely successful free market ideals? Why not attack this problem by addressing one of the main drivers of high healthcare costs directly?
Let’s remember the main reasons why healthcare in the United States is significantly more expensive than abroad
-First, no other country has a legal system where lawsuits are so common and so drastic than the U.S. This has led American healthcare practitioners and institutions to pay malpractice insurance premiums which can easily exceed one hundred thousand and much more dollars/year per Doctor, Nurse, Technician, and many times that for Hospitals. Although foreign doctors and clinics have medical malpractice insurance as well, their costs are a tiny fraction of that amount.
-Second, the cost of labor, construction, supplies, drugs, energy, taxes, and almost everything other than high technology equipment which is permanently bought and paid for is generally higher in the U.S.
-Third, administrative aspects like paperwork, insurance collections, receivables, bad debt, and compliance are a larger cost burden for U.S. healthcare providers.
Why not do something about the first reason above? Why are any actions against it being ruled out? More than $10 Billion per year spent in litigation and compensations in malpractice suits that over-inflate the costs of everything related to healthcare? This would diminish the enormous cost of insurance for doctors, nurses, technicians and hospitals nationwide, and could therefore also reduce the very expensive and usual practice of defensive medicine, that implies the use of additional, excessive, and bothersome diagnostic exams requested to the patients that cost many other billions, but are requested only mostly as means of obtaining today, an allegeable defense in a possible future malpractice trial.
If this is not done, I believe that not much will be achieved after years of debates in Washington, and the millions of uninsured and under-insured citizens will still be there waiting for an answer. Unfortunately for US healthcare providers, while fortunately for patients, Medical Travel will always be an option. In her article, Chrissie Long wrote about the big difference in price of private medical services provided in other countries comparing them with the cost of similar procedures in the US. Let me assure you that it is true and astounding. In the city of Monterrey, Mexico just two hours driving from Laredo, TX, you have four first rate hospitals with The Joint Commission’s International Gold Seal of Approval, which shows their quality to be at par with the top hospitals in the U.S. and prices are still 50%-75% lower than up north. As recent examples or ours, Brian from New York came for a Facelift with one of Mexico’s leading cosmetic surgeons and paid half the $10,000 he had been quoted; and the more serious case of Chris from Denver, who had a robotic prostatectomy surgery to remove his prostate cancer with the latest surgical technology involving the DaVinci surgery robot, while his insurance company paid him 100% of a $25,000 bill which would have been $60,000 back home, and would have made him pay for at least $12,000 in copayments. It is important to point out that these savings might be achieved without compromising quality. Even if a medical tourist is looking for value, it can easily reach out for doctors and institutions similar to America’s best. The best doctors in Monterrey typically speak English, most have studied, received training, or worked in the US or Europe, and some are even U.S. board certified. The best hospitals in Monterrey have world top-class facilities, the latest technology and equipment, and even innovative procedures that have made them earn local and international acclaims.
American healthcare is indeed in need of a change, but unless its problems are adequately addressed and unearthed from their roots, nothing positive will be achieved, and us in the medical travel industry will continue to see increasing numbers of Americans going abroad as an escape valve.
Gabriel Senior is the CEO of Travel For Care, an innovative Medical Travel firm headquartered in Monterrey, Mexico, marketing medical solutions to American and Canadian patients looking for high quality elective and non-elective procedures. For more information, please visit www.travelforcare.com
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