Foreign surgeons attract U.S. patients (Seattle Times, Sun -front pg)

[Rose Siding]

BOMBAY, India — Bradley Thayer, a retired apple farmer from Okanogan, Wash., traveled 7,500 miles to get his torn knee ligament fixed, and says he paid a third of what it would have cost him in a U.S. hospital.

And that included airfare to Bombay.

Thayer, 60, had no health insurance when he fell and injured himself while vacationing in British Columbia. He says his U.S. doctors told him he would have to wait six months for surgery and pay bills totaling $35,000. So he joined a rising tide of American and European patients heading to India, Thailand and Singapore for top-class orthopedic surgery, plastic surgery, infertility treatment and cardiology that come much cheaper than in the West.

It's the latest in outsourcing — Asian doctors study in the United States or Britain, acquire their skills and reputations in hospitals there, then take them back to their home countries and wait for the business to come to them..........

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002519113_surgery25.html

[Quakerfriend]

1. I have cousins who lived in the US since the late 50's who

routinely go to Colombia for their surgeries. Some also go to Mexico.

All outcomes have been very successful- lasix surgery, dental surgery, plastic surgeries, and knees as well.