Florida Is Trying To Attract Foreign Patients Instead Of Extending Insurance To Its Own Residents

[n2doc]

BY SY MUKHERJEE

Florida lawmakers may vote to spend millions of dollars to encourage sick people to use local health care services — just not the hundreds of thousands of poor and uninsured people who actually live in the Sunshine State.

The Florida state Senate’s Commerce and Tourism committee unanimously backed a bill on Tuesday that would appropriate $5 million in 2015 for attracting medical tourism — a burgeoning industry in which people travel to other countries to seek health care that is either too expensive or too difficult to access in their own. If the full legislature passes the funding, Florida’s tourism arm will direct a marketing campaign that plays up the state’s health care providers and specialty medical services to an international audience.

Medical tourism usually brings to mind the hundreds of thousands of Americans — both insured and uninsured — who go to other countries such as Costa Rica, Mexico, India, Thailand, and Brazil to seek treatment because medical care in the United States can be prohibitively expensive. But according to Patients Beyond Borders, between 600,000 and 800,000 foreign patients came to the U.S. for health services in 2013 despite the relatively high costs of care here. These patients are often from countries that have yet to develop certain advanced procedures or technologies, or where those procedures are still far too costly. For instance, many international consumers visit well-known clinics such as the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, Johns Hopkins in Maryland, and the Mayo Clinic arms in Arizona, Minnesota, and Florida for cancer care and dental, orthopedic, and cosmetic surgery.

Those are all still pretty expensive and lucrative specialized procedures that attract patients who can afford them (on top of an international trip to the United States). So it’s not surprising that the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida is a big supporter of the bill, which was proposed by state Senate Health Policy Committee Chair Aaron Bean (R). “Florida can and should be a top-tier health care destination,” said Bean of his legislation.

more
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/03/19/3416268/florida-medical-tourism-medicaid/

[hobbit709]

1. Money talks and the poor can just die.

[treestar]

2. Why do they need public funding to attract it?

We are already known for probably having the most advanced medical system - the rich who can afford it can use it, so long as they can pay the high prices. Odd they would need public money for advertising for it. Why don't they just use their own money like other companies?

[steve2470]

3. ............

Can't wait to get rid of Governor Voldemort.

[atreides1]

4. It won't matter

Unless they get rid of the Republicans in the state legislature!

[steve2470]

5. yes them also nt

[L0oniX]

7. Yea ...WTF in Pinellas county? Fucking Dems better get out and vote come Nov.

It's pathetic that Sink lost to an asshole that wants to privatize SS. I don't like Sink but I am a straight down the line Dem voter.

[L0oniX]

6. Medical tourists wanted! Florida survives because of tourists.