Thread: Wealthy Americans Turning To Europe For Medical Treatment

Originally Posted by chassisman

I saw a news story the other day about people going abroad (in this story it was Thailand) for surgeries/treatment. A man from Shreveport LA needed bypass surgery and it was going to cost him well over $100,000 here, as he had no insurance. He went to a very modern hospital in Thailand (they showed extensive footage of the facility) and had it done for $12,000. They noted in the story that nearly everyone on the nursing staff was an RN, not one on the floor and a bunch of LVN's like here. Also noted was the fact that many of the surgeons/doctors on staff at the Thai hospital had worked on staff at major US hospitals. Seeing the facility, the staff, and the modern equipment I would have no qualms about being treated there.

Meanwhile, in the USA, illegal aliens get treated for free, which saves them a bunch on airfare.

What's wrong with LVN/LPN's??? An RN killed my husband!

Originally Posted by Hoplite

Such as?

Stem cell research is experiencing limitations in the US which it does not have in some other countries. As a natural consequence the cutting edge of this research is found outside of the US.

I would not overreact over people going to some other country for exotic or totally cutting edge treatments.

Originally Posted by daddio

Treatment did nothing for Manning. Maybe there is a good reason for not approving it here...

Well... to their credit, they did perform a successful walletectomy on Manning even if the stem-cell treatment did nothing to heal his neck problem.

Seriously? This is how political points are scored now?

Can I say I am a in favour of universal healthcare systems and this is more of a tangent from the main topic...

Medical Tourism is alive and well... The US gets many people from Europe too who go there to get treated. This is Global Medience... This does not say one Healthcare system is better than another.. If your need knee surgey tomorrow the best place in the world is Belfast.. Certain types of Cancer New York.. Other types Paris... There are only so many leaders in there fields using leading practices... When it is done right the leading teams share and consult with each other over what treatment developed in these hospitals of excellence will suit the patient (My sister was lucky to be in this a cancer one in Dublin (St James) and they discussed her case with Germany, Britain, Finland and US, they agreed that the US developed treatment was the best suited for her case). This does not mean the US healthcare system is better than Germany, it just says in this particular case the US experts had developed something which the Irish experts had deemed most suitable... The next case it might be a Finnish or British developed solution..

Eventually as they know more about these treatment (results and side effects) they will be come more common practice...

Originally Posted by Hoplite

Wealthy Americans Turning To Europe For Medical Treatment - Slashdot



The article has further links to more and supporting information.

So why is this? I mean, the US is supposed to have the best healthcare and doubly so if you have money. But now we see wealthy Americans LEAVING the US for treatment they cant get here.

This does not indicate a good healthcare system if even the wealthy feel they cant get what they need here.

What do you mean "the wealthy?" These are a few wealthy people who went overseas for a few specific, highly specialized and probably very unique procedures. Even if the US has the best treatment, it doesn't mean that it has every treatment including anything and everything found overseas.