Thanks again, This site is very interesting. Hungry has excellent prices and I know and worked with two Hungarian scientists who were educated in Hungry. Top notch both.

this is gorgeous! . when do we get it in Tennessee? -- j

Turfprint -

Since you are interested, here is a site I found that has a spreadsheet showing different costs per country per procedure. It even lets you choose the denomination of the money. (The link is for hip replacement in USD)

http://www.treatmentabroad.com/costs/hip...

Jan

Actually cost shopping on the national or international market for medical service had never occurred to me. Or any of my friends, at least that I am aware of. We often talk about going here or there for diagnosis but that is a function of a hospital’s expertise. Ha, I feel liberated, thanks Galt’s Gulch.

Thanks for the information, O.A.! I've been saying I should research this, and I appreciate the nudge.

Doctors who have agreements with insurance companies get "negotiated" payments - usually a percentage of the billed cost. Medicare pays the lowest percentage. The doctor also has to have some number of staff to deal with insurance companies: getting approval, negotiating which medications can be used, hospital costs, rehab requirements.....the insurance company has to approve every single piece of it before they pay it. It's WAY cheaper to just put the fee on the deposit slip. Where do you deposit gold? hmmm...

Thanks for input Jan

the docs carry the largest share of medmal insurance. They have to have it, no matter where they perform their surgery.

great post as usual OA. I urge all my friends in the South West to look into surgical procedures in Merida and Hermosio in Mexico.

trying to recover costs. Also, Medicare often pays on a percentage. I am so glad you are still with us!!! yikes!!

We need more common sense Dr's like these.

I had a MI heart attack a couple of years ago, had to be flown 100 air miles or so. While the company thought I was covered on Medicare, they billed $39,000. When they found out I didn't have that coverage, they dropped the bill to $10,000. So why was it a higher billing to Medicare than it was to me individually?

It is difficult to self-insure employees against major medical interventions. (We have looked into this.) Insurance is less expensive for the individual/company and provides OMG coverage. One thing that people should know is that many insurance companies will now support medical tourism. A procedure (such as hip replacement) that costs 30K to 50K in the US can cost 8K to 12K in Hungary or Malaysia (both high rated in surgical performance). Your insurance company can fly you overseas and get you the operation and a couple of weeks of recovery and still have the procedure cost a fraction of what it would have in the States. It saves them money; it saves you money.

I do not know if the insurance companies can do likewise with places like the Surgery Center of OK, or if they are legally constrained within the US.

Jan

Turfprint -

You are correct about longer lives requiring more medical intervention and about the increase of what we can do medically costing more. But you are not correct about the US having the best health care system in the world: our live birth and pregnancy complications statistics are not tops, nor is our life expectancy. Yes, people from Canada or England or Switzerland do fly to other countries than to the US to get various kinds of treatments - what kinds and where depend on the breakthroughs in the individual countries.

We are not at the top in medical technology, and I think we should be. If the government would just please get out of health care (where it has no business being) then we can advance more rapidly.

Jan

Yes and now we have it occurring in higher education.

I subscribed to an expense-sharing cooperative. The monthly share is about two-thirds of what the premium would be, and the "deductible" is just about half.

Yes, I have been following the Surgery Center of Oklahoma for some time over there upfront pricing efforts. Also following the cash-only/direct-pay provider movement and providers opting out of Medicaid and Medicare.

What irony!
The USA, the supposed bastion of freedom and free markets sends people to other countries in order to experience freedom in healthcare. It makes me want to tear my hair out in rage. The stench in Washington permeates the whole country.

it is unfortunate that 0 will never see or know of this company. if he did he wouldn't give a damn. you can not say 0 and capitalism in the same sentence.

All good points.

Government into anything drives the cost up......evidence: medicare into healthcare; student loans into education. The government trough attracts (and corrupts) those who wish (that's wish) to "profit" (read suck, as in suckling).

It just goes to prove. If you tell a lie often enough it becomes fact. As manifest by the politicians who advance repealing Obama Care immediately follow up with the need for a better option. Here in America with the best health care in the world many people think it needs fixed. Fact is a bureaucratic option is not needed. New law by Turfprint… If it can be screwed up, the Government will do it.

Yes medical care and especially hospital care is very expensive. Here are a few reasons: 1. People live longer than ever before, which is good. But old people require a lot more care than young which is bad. Also, medicine has advanced exponentially which is good, but it requires education, specialization, and very expensive equipment, which is bad. (Not to mention R&D) 2. Courts, lawyers, and lack of common sense have not helped the keep the price down. 3. The very nature of some far off insurance company paying the bill tends to keep cost scrutiny away from the individual responsible for the bill. 4. Hospitals are damn expensive to operate and they have a staff of highly skilled people on call 24/7 practically everywhere in the country. That includes equipment, the emergency transportation, heating and lights, maintenance, and so on. That’s good and bad. You never hear of some World Leader getting sick and flying to Canada, or England, or Switzerland. They come to America.
Can you add a few more reasons?

Hear, hear! And as to the quality of decades of government involvement in healthcare, we need look no further than the 'shining star' of the VA....

That surgery operation (pun intended) in Oklahoma looks like something big government control freak weasels like Harry Reid would love to write legislation against.