US healthcare co. to send thousands of patients to India

[raccoon]

New York, Dec. 10 (PTI): In a bid to provide affordable treatment to patients in the US, a healthcare company here has tied up with two major Indian hospitals and will soon send thousands of patients there for treatment.

Announcing the plan, the company IndUShealth said it has completed treatment referral agreements with Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals and Escorts Heart Institute and Research Center Ltd (EHIRC)-- both major medical centres in New Delhi.

More than 40 million Americans have inadequate health insurance and many risk financial ruin if an expected medical emergency arises, it said.

The company hopes to send thousands of Americans for treatment in various Indian world class medical facilities which would also benefit the patients who are unable to meet the cost in their own country...

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/006200512101115.htm

I'd heard about people doing this on an individual basis, but not a healthcare company arranging this.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

1. Holy crap

the ultimate outsourcing. The end must be near. That is just crazy.

[NanceGreggs]

2. Wow!! What a GREAT idea!

"Here's your boarding pass, ma'am - sure hope your appendix doesn't burst before you reach your final destination!"

[FreedomAngel82]

12. This is just bizarre

:crazy: What country do I live in again??

[MountainLaurel]

15. That's what I was thinking

I endured 27 hours of travel to get to New Zealand in a relatively healthy state, and it was hard on my body. Can't imagine being ill and having to make a journey like that. And that's not considering the other issues: I had a week recovery after my gallbladder removal, which pretty much killed my sick leave. Imagine also having to tack on four days of flight time, the time it takes to recover from jet lag on either end, and having to wait several days before you can fly anyway (I would guess that the air pressure and the recycled air could cause problems with healing).

:scared:

[Cleita]

3. I read that this was in the works some time ago.

I didn't think they would do it. I can't imagine anything worse than a long airplane ride when you are sick.

[barb162]

18. Same thing I was thinking plus waiting around during stopovers

[Ganja Ninja]

4. Good luck suing if anything goes wrong.

[Benhurst]

11. If the Repubs get their way,

we won't be able to sue here either.

[FreedomAngel82]

13. Probably why they are doing this

So these companies don't lose money. :(

[katinmn]

5. well, isn't that special???

In light of the fact that many Americans cannot afford healthcare, I applaud the company for taking the initiative and finding a solution. While this could save lives, it is hard to imagine seriously ill patients making such an arduous journey to another country for treatment.

We are seriously screwed up as a nation. Congress, stop fiddling around! Give us universal health care!

[MindPilot]

8. While universal health care is certainly an urgent issue

Congress has much more important things to deal with like protecting us from video games. :sarcasm:

I agree with you totally. Health care just seems like such a no-brainier but it seems like the same people who don't have the least reservation about allowing the government to run the minutiae of their life--who you have sex with, what substances you ingest, what your read and watch--scream the loudest about government intrusion when it comes to health care. They don't mind a--probably offshore--corporation making your health care decisions for you, but not that evil government. I frankly don't get it. :rant:

[raccoon]

22. To get universal health care, Americans will have to DEMAND it.

For sure, the Republicans don't want it, but the Democrats aren't going to get it done either, unless the American people demand it.

I'd love to see it, but I doubt it will happen any time soon.

[katinmn]

27. We'll have to throw out about 400 Congressmembers in 06

Are you ready? I am.

Except for a small group -- we know who they are -- the rest can all go to hell while we start over.

[MindPilot]

6. Like it's not already too easy to catch something on an airliner

Will patients be isolated from family? What if there are complications? Will it be just for elective procedures, long term care? Anyone in need of hospitalization is not in the best position to endure a what, 12-hour plane ride.

There are so many potential problems with this idea, I can't imagine anyone is taking it seriously.

[MountainLaurel]

20. To India, try 27-plus

The shortest route would be across to London, then down across Europe, if I remember correctly from some coworkers who would travel to India to visit family. I believe they mentioned that it was a more than 24 hour journey. If the patient is on the west coast, they'd also have to fly to the East Coast or face that huge flight across the Pacific.

[katinmn]

28. If it's the only option available, people will take it. Live or die?

What's sad is that the Repukes will think it's a fine idea for poor people.

[havocmom]

7. Hope the middle class and lower end of the rich professional scale

gets the message NOW. Everybody is expendable. The Corportists hate you all! Just so much surplus popltation...

If you don't have Buffet's Bucks, you're a chump in today's world.

Doctors's jobs being outsourced? Is the shrub gonna tell them it's because they need more edcation? And how will Frist take the news? Does his family have hospital holdings in India too or are the insurance companies screwing him too?

[converted_democrat]

9. Bet that's going to piss of a bunch of Docs.

That's the first thing that popped into my head when I read it.

[havocmom]

16. Good, might shake some of them who need to be shaken

outta their notions that displaced workers have themselves to blame.

I know there are some fantastic human beings who have earned impressive letters after their names, but some doctors, like every group, need something to raise their awareness of the REAL agenda in today's world.

When the Corporations start dumping on the upper middle class, there will be some lights going on. And those of us who have screamed for years that American businesses were intent on making America a Third World Nation will not be called crazy conspiracy freaks as often as days past.

They can't say some of us didn't warn them.

[raccoon]

23. Let's hope so.

"When the Corporations start dumping on the upper middle class, there will be some lights going on. "

[400Years]

17. well my idiot right wing BIL will finally get what he deserves

he works in the healthcare industry and he might wind up eventually losing his job.

I tried to talk to him about outsourcing etc. once and he didn't want to hear about it.

[MindPilot]

14. Right about that, you are.

it's a GLOBAL ECONOMY doncha know. And the American worker needs to get a clue that in the eyes of the ruling class Joe Sixpack on the line in Dee-triot is no different than that 8-year-old in Bangladesh. You exist for--and at the pleasure of--the corporation.

[havocmom]

19. yep, gonna pound Americans into cogs or starve us out trying

Oh, and they want us to roll back environmental and worker protection laws too...

[chat_noir]

10. Surgeries, Side Trips for 'Medical Tourists'

NEW DELHI -- Three months ago, Howard Staab learned that he suffered from a life-threatening heart condition and would have to undergo surgery at a cost of up to $200,000 -- an impossible sum for the 53-year-old carpenter from Durham, N.C., who has no health insurance.

So he outsourced the job to India.

Taking his cue from cost-cutting U.S. businesses, Staab last month flew about 7,500 miles to the Indian capital, where doctors at the Escorts Heart Institute & Research Centre -- a sleek aluminum-colored building across the street from a bicycle-rickshaw stand -- replaced his balky heart valve with one harvested from a pig. Total bill: about $10,000, including round-trip airfare and a planned side trip to the Taj Mahal.

"The Indian doctors, they did such a fine job here, and took care of us so well," said Staab, a gentle, ponytailed bicycling enthusiast who was accompanied to India by his partner, Maggi Grace. "I would do it again."

Staab is one of a growing number of people known as "medical tourists" who are traveling to India in search of First World health care at Third World prices. Last year, an estimated 150,000 foreigners visited India for medical procedures, and the number is increasing at the rate of about 15 percent a year, according to Zakariah Ahmed, a health care specialist at the Confederation of Indian Industries.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49743-2004Oct20.html

[cantstandbush]

21. Outsourcing patients. What a novel idea. n/t

[ultraist]

24. Outsourcing doctors?

Hmmm... I wonder if this will turn some doctors away from voting Repub. Doctors tend to vote Repub for tax purposes and in support of Repub tort reform measures.

[elehhhhna]

25. Gonna be a loooong flight to the ER.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

26. Could be worse. They could be sending them to a VA hospital.

Having once experienced their tender mercies, give me India.