For Medical Tourists, Simple Math

[spanone]

COSTS FOR TWO PATIENTS
Hip Implant

United States $36,861
Belgium $4,200

Surgeon’s Fee

United States $17,500
Belgium $1,110

WARSAW, Ind. — Michael Shopenn’s artificial hip was made by a company based in this remote town, a global center of joint manufacturing. But he had to fly to Europe to have it installed.

Mr. Shopenn, 67, an architectural photographer and avid snowboarder, had been in such pain from arthritis that he could not stand long enough to make coffee, let alone work. He had health insurance, but it would not cover a joint replacement because his degenerative disease was related to an old sports injury, thus considered a pre-existing condition.

Desperate to find an affordable solution, he reached out to a sailing buddy with friends at a medical device manufacturer, which arranged to provide his local hospital with an implant at what was described as the “list price” of $13,000, with no markup. But when the hospital’s finance office estimated that the hospital charges would run another $65,000, not including the surgeon’s fee, he knew he had to think outside the box, and outside the country.

“That was a third of my savings at the time,” Mr. Shopenn said recently from the living room of his condo in Boulder, Colo. “It wasn’t happening.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/04/health/for-medical-tourists-simple-math.html?_r=0

[Mnemosyne]

1. Looks like I'll be needing a new hip and ankle in the near future, maybe better find a way to save

up if the 'cants manage to repeal the only medical I could qualify for now.

[spanone]

2. medical costs in the u.s. are criminal imho

[Mnemosyne]

4. And ER costs are some of the most insane. Like any third world country, no money = death.

Never thought this country would become so cruel.

[hobbit709]

3. Friend of mine's wife just went to the Philippines for her hysterectomy.

Her copay here would have been $12K. Even with airfare she got it done there for under $4K total.

[Lancero]

5. My father

Had done this once

Although his was more of a case of the surgery he needed not being offered in the US, but being avaliable in other countries.

I can't remember the specific surgery though, I think it was something for his thyroid? Anyway, he flew into Canada to have the surgery done since it wasn't yet available in the US.

[question everything]

6. Universal health, universal health

More from the article

An artificial hip, however, costs only about $350 to manufacture in the United States, according to Dr. Blair Rhode, an orthopedist and entrepreneur whose company is developing generic implants. In Asia, it costs about $150, though some quality control issues could arise there, he said.

So why are implant list prices so high, and rising by more than 5 percent a year? In the United States, nearly all hip and knee implants — sterilized pieces of tooled metal, plastic or ceramics — are made by five companies, which some economists describe as a cartel. Manufacturers tweak old models and patent the changes as new products, with ever-bigger price tags.

(snip)

In addition, device makers typically require doctors’ groups and hospitals to sign nondisclosure agreements about prices, which means institutions do not know what their competitors are paying. This secrecy erodes bargaining power and has allowed a small industry of profit-taking middlemen to flourish: joint implant purchasing consultants, implant billing companies, joint brokers. There are as many as 13 layers of vendors between the physician and the patient for a hip replacement, according to Kate Willhite, a former executive director of the Manitowoc Surgery Center in Wisconsin.

(snip)

Belgium pays for health care through a mandatory national insurance plan, which requires contributions from employers and workers and pays for 80 percent of each treatment. Except for the poor, patients are generally responsible for the remaining 20 percent of charges, and many get private insurance to cover that portion.

[Logical]

7. Interesting story n-t