Son outsources care for his parents to India

[ikojo]

Now Americans are moving to India to have poorly paid Indians care for their aging parents. Will the baby boomers who were so enamored with India in the 60s now move there to take care of their parents and themselves? I don't see this as an option for working class people, because how could we get away from our jobs long enough?

I recall hearing of an employer or an insurance company that wanted to have a patient sent to India for open heart surgery because it was cheaper. The employee in question, if I am remembering this correctly, was in a union and the union pitched a fit about sending him overseas.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/newswatch/story/60CBF662E0A69D7E8625732D001AF132?OpenDocument


Man turns to India for cheap care for parents
By Laurie Goering
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
08/05/2007

PONDICHERRY, INDIA — After three years of caring for his increasingly frail mother and father in their Florida retirement home, Steve Herzfeld was exhausted and faced with spending his family's last resources to put the couple in a cheap nursing home.

So he made what he saw as the only sensible decision: He outsourced his parents to India.

Today his mother, Frances, 89, who suffers from advanced Parkinson's disease, gets daily massages, physical therapy and 24-hour help getting to the bathroom, all for about $15 a day. His father, Ernest, 93, an Alzheimer's patient, has a full-time personal assistant, and a cook who has won him over to a vegetarian diet healthy enough that he no longer needs his cholesterol medication.

snip

more in the article.

[skul_Donteecha]

1. Eldercare is not the only thing.

People are flocking to India and smilar areas for major surgery simply because not only are the surgeons excellent but the costs are far lower than here. And all those surgeons got their training in the states. Pretty soon, we will have to go to New Delhi for our flu shots. For health care reasons, moving to India may become more and more popular. Won't that be fun?

[rodeodance]

3. Tailand is drawing lots of US patients also.

[rodeodance]

2. This situation is more a state of the US health care 'system' than anything else. The son

is going what he can to take care of his parents.

[eleny]

4. K&R

I applaud this son for exploring the best situation for his parents. and he can be there with them, too.

At first it made me a little squeamish. But then I figured that it was not too different from U.S. retirees going down to live in Mexico because they can make their retirement income stretch.

[thunder rising]

5. Watch for the muti-national corps to get in on this quick

First there will be certifications, and licenses and then the fees go up.