Can Medical Tourism Packages Thrive With Universal Health Care?

US Push Toward Universal Health Care

One of the major campaign promises from President-elect Obama was moving toward universal health care.  This will have a significant impact on those who currently can’t afford health care.  One of the problems with universal health care is that many proponents assume that people are unhealthy because they can’t afford it, as opposed to people living unhealthy lifestyles and can’t afford the ensuing health care costs.  Health care in the US is indeed extremely expensive, but the point is that we Americans may not be helping ourselves.  For example, one of the most prevalent factors in cardiac risk is smoking.  So strong is the link that cardiologist Dr. S.K. Chang says, “In patients who have had a heart attack, quitting smoking can halve the risk of sudden death and recurrence of heart attack, thereby increasing their life expectancy.”  Despite medical evidence and government intervention in the form of smoking bans, the number of smokers has recently increased.

Medical Tourism Packages May Still Be Cheaper Than Universal Health Care

Even with a universal health care system, medical tourism packages—especially for high dollar value procedures—to places like Singapore may still be cheaper in the long run.  Until an actual plan comes forward, one can only speculate about the differences in price, but there are more costs to health care than what is on the invoice.  Universal health care is by no means synonymous with free health care.  Nor is it necessarily affordable as some may claim.  Instead of Joe or Sally paying out of pocket, their medical bill will come from taxes and other government funding.  Unfortunately, without making simultaneous adjustments to health care industry overhead costs, we’ll still end up paying those high prices one way or another.  For example, to know how much coronary angioplasty surgery cost, one must factor in the salaries of the medical staff, fluctuating fuel costs, and IT support.

So How Much Does Coronary Angioplasty Surgery Cost?

The cost of coronary angioplasty surgery depends largely on where you have it performed.  In the US, you may be looking at over $100,000, as opposed to $12,000 or less in Singapore.  Singapore, and other medical tourism destination countries thrive despite seemingly unrealistic prices, because their costs of labor and living are far less expensive than in the US.  Many Singaporean hospitals receive more advanced technology for less that it would cost in the US.  I’m not advocating paying the medical community less, but certainly reducing the cost of medical care has to include reducing medical care providers’ costs.  The problem many health care reforms do not address is the cost of providing health care from the industry’s perspective.  While it’s noble to champion affordable health care for the public, that can’t realistically happen without answering that original question—how much does coronary angioplasty surgery cost—from the medical community’s point of view.

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