I’m sitting here in New Zealand feeling frustrated after reading Kinsey Gidick’s article True Tales about Healthcare Abroad. Nothing against Gidick, the article makes for an interesting read.

While the article does a great job of proving a point regarding the exorbitant cost of healthcare in the USA and the Medical Tourism alternatives available, Gidick, along with the vast majority of US media, polarizes the concept of socialized healthcare.

I’m referring to the section entitled “United Kingdom or Magic Kingdom”:

Dr. Evans disagrees. “I had a good friend of mine who lived on the west coast of England who was in his 80s and suffered from terrible chronic neuropathic pain,” he says. “After months of waiting, he was at last able to see a neurosurgeon who confirmed that he needed surgery to correct his problem. They put him down on the books for surgery 11 months out. Granted the surgery and all his care was free, but had he been in this country I could have picked up the phone and had him in a surgical suite in a week.”

Why is it that, regardless of whether they are ‘for’ or ‘against’ socialized healthcare, the US media insist on packaging a nations healthcare up in a nice tidy box that either has ‘socialized’ or ‘not socialized’ (or more correctly ‘American system’ or ‘Canadian system’) written on the front. The reality is that it is not this black and white.

Having lived and worked in the UK for a period of time, I’m in a fairly safe position to say that, much like New Zealand’s system, the chap Dr. Evans refers to had options, something that neither the US or the Canadian system would provide.

A quick Google of “private neurosurgeons UK” gives an abundance of competent surgeons. So had this patient been willing to pay he could have avoided the long wait he experienced.

or

Again through the powers of google it is pretty easy to confirm that there are elective insurance options available that would have covered this man for private surgery, again avoiding the wait lists.

or

He could have gone with the option he did…. Suffer the wait and receive free treatment.

Safe to say that even if Dr. Evan’s friend had chosen to pay, it would have been significantly cheaper than paying for the same care in the USA.

So why, when there are systems around that can offer so much choice, do the US media focus on perhaps the two least flexible systems around?

Much has been written about the ebb and flow of opportunities around Medical Tourism as an attractive option for Americans seeking cheaper health care outside their own borders. From predictions of stellar growth by Deloitte in its 2008 report on the Medical Tourism market in the US, to significant downward revisions of forecasts due to the economic environment; authored by Deloitte in the 2009 installment.

Opinion generally around the fortunes of Medical Tourism are polarized, ranging from examples like; USA Today picking medical tourism in the USA to be one of the top 10 trends during 2010, to an article by Keith Pollard “Treatment Abroad” that points to medical tourism remaining in the margins for the foreseeable future. http://www.imtjonline.com/articles/2010/the-outlook-for-medical-tourism-30034/

Apart from feeling the need to reach for a bottle of Prozac and a stiff Gin after reading parts of Keith Pollard’s article, the issue I have with his opinion, is that it implies that Medical Tourism was originally prophesied as a Holy Grail, mainstream, overnight solution to the current issues facing the US health care landscape. In reality, Medical Tourism is a channel option within the business mix and will always be so. As such, being in the margins is probably a sound footing from which to continue to build on a beachhead industry, moving it towards a longer term goal of wider understanding and acceptance within the US health care landscape. As trite as it may sound, Rome wasn’t built in a day, or for that matter, a year.

Of greater interest, and proving that a week can be a long time in politics, was the election of Republican candidate Scott Brown to the US Senate. In doing so ending the 47 year stronghold by the Democrats in Massachusetts by the late Senator Kennedy, and preventing the Democrats from passing major reforms through the Senate unimpeded. A key reform Health care now appears stalled as the Republicans, with new found power, push back in response to, what appears to be, resounding public opinion. Watch this space, as it now appears that the already watered down health care reforms will be further watered down and in the process perhaps further opening the way for opportunities in Medical Tourism… watch this space.

Related posts:

1. Boutique Medicine – American style or New Zealand?