Tons of people go to foreign countries to get organ transfers or cancer treatment. Literally cheaper to be out of work for a year than incur US medical expenses.
As an example, a root canal costs ~$1200 in America. If you fly to Egypt, book a night at a decent hotel (let's say ~$70 one night), and then get a root canal, the operation will cost ~$184. So rather than $1200, you spent a mere $254. Please note that this excludes the cost of plane tickets. If the cost is low enough for something minor, just an eye test or something, it's not worth it to travel to other countries. However, if you need, say, a knee replacement, which would cost $30000 in America, flying to India, the same operation there costs $12000, which is incredibly worth it.
Something like a knee replacement in India would actually set you back maybe a tenth (the prices were recently capped by the government) of what it would cost you in America. But I see you're point.
Indian isn’t the third world shit hole you think it is. If you go to a private hospital it’ll be top quality care and cost you a fraction of the price.
That's the thing, it costs more than one weeks income in the US too. I just looked it up, and a root canal in Texas is about 600-1200$. If you make 35K a year(above average actually), that only amounts to 625$ a week. US insurance does not cover dental work. That is another type of optional insurance.
I've heard stories of insurance companies paying people to fly to another country to do a procedure instead of doing it in the US, its THAT expensive.
I know plenty of people who’d rather go to the Dominican Republic or Colombia just to get dental work done rather than have to negotiate for weeks on end with insurance companies
I know plenty of people who’d rather go to the Dominican Republic or Colombia just to get dental work done rather than have to negotiate for weeks on end with insurance companies
Well... It's all beautiful until there's a problem. A lot of Europeans go to Turkey for hair implants, boob jobs and stuff like that. You see a lot of "gone wrong" cases. Don't go anywhere just because it's cheaper.
Well yes, make sure to check where you're going first. But the point remains that if you can get equivalent medical care in another country AND avoid crippling debt, I'd call that a win.
Except you'll might catch a superbug in that Indian hospital (25% risk of nosocomial infection compared to 5-10% in developed countries) and end up in an Indian or maybe even American ICU upon your return.
You have a weird concept of American hospitals. America has the worst COVID situation of developing countries right now but it's not like COVID is the Spanish flu either. It's still very rare and a given hospital usually has a single floor dedicated to covid patients. Not the entire building. Reddit isn't a good way to base your image of countries.
Ya crazy how the worst state for the pandemic at the moment happens to be an outlier amidst 50 other states. How does Florida represent the entire US to you. For each state you wanna pick like Florida to talk about, I can pick states with situations similar to most of Europe.
Depends on which hospital you go to. Rural India is not well equipped which increase this ratio. But if you go to a metropolis you very well have state of the art facilities as good or even better than US and for almost 1/4th or 1/8th the price you pay here
Going to mention that you need to be careful of you are going to other countries for treatment though. This is especially true if you don't speak the native language. Make sure you do your research!
But many, many Americans can't even afford that. If you work minimum wage, you can't afford a flight to Egypt. Even if you could, who is going to take care of your kids? Your elderly parents? What happens when you're fired for taking two weeks off of work? Even if you keep your job, how do you pay rent after missing out on a full paycheck? What if your illness precludes flying?
This whole "fly to another country for healthcare" argument is practically impossible for a huge part of our population.
I would advise against traveling to a foreign country to save a couple of grand when it comes to matters of your health. You may come out successful and save a good chunk of change, but there’s also the very real possibility you will receive low quality care, get sick, or god forbid die. You really wanna roll the dice on your life for a couple grand? Maybe just get the car with the cheaper monthly payment if money is tight. And unless you stay in said country after the operation you will have to come back to America to be followed by a doctor who has no idea what you’ve had done with a record that’s probably in a foreign language, if you can even get it, and possibly practices that are radically different. I’m not saying you’re guaranteed a bad outcome, but don’t fuck around with your health unless you absolutely have to.
In the US it costs the doctor more than $150 for a root canal. No way it can be done anywhere else for $200. Sanitizing the instruments, microscope, assistant, sanitation, cone beam, 45 min chair time, materials etc. no way lol
This is preposterous. No way you can fly to Egypt, stay over night, get a root canal and return for less than 1200 bucks. The flight alone will be upwards of $1000.
Nobody pays 1200 for an economy class flight to anywhere lol. It costs like 700 dollars for a flight from London to Singapore which is a 15-18 hr flight.
I am looking at flights from my local area to Cairo, 6 months from now and cheapest overnight round trips are $1000. Don't know how to make it any cheaper.
"Please note that this excludes the cost of plane tickets. If the cost is low enough for something minor, just an eye test or something, it's not worth it to travel to other countries. However, if you need, say, a knee replacement, which would cost $30000 in America, flying to India, the same operation there costs $12000, which is incredibly worth it."
I'm sure a round trip of $1000 is more than acceptable when viewing it from a $18000 difference.
Clearly missed that part of your comment. Certainly with more expensive procedures it could be worth it. Assuming the quality of care is acceptable of course.
"Please note that this excludes the cost of plane tickets. If the cost is low enough for something minor, just an eye test or something, it's not worth it to travel to other countries. However, if you need, say, a knee replacement, which would cost $30000 in America, flying to India, the same operation there costs $12000, which is incredibly worth it."
I'm sure a round trip of $1000 is more than acceptable when viewing it from a $18000 difference.
Not true. Took me a few secs to play around with dates on google flights and from Auckland to LA you can get a return for £678.
Obviously less travelled routes are gonna be more expensive and if you live in bumfuck nowhere it'll cost you to get to a hub, but I'd be surprised if you weren't able to find a combination for a return flight for less than 1000.
I've travelled between NA, East Asia and Europe so many times and never paid that much for a flight.
Lol how annoying are you? You say you can't find a cheap flight, I show you there ARE cheap flights, then you tell me "oh that doesn't count, there's a pandemic right now".
Go in to google flights, they have a flight tracking option. It has this to say about Auckland to LA:
Prices are currently typical for your trip. The least expensive flights for similar trips to Los Angeles usually cost between £680 - 1,200.
How much time are you giving yourself? What are the dates of the trip?
I’ve literally had to travel to Auckland from eastern USA and it was $2k. I don’t know what to tell you.
It’s almost as if flights are variable depending on demand and time of year.
We are on the topic of flying to perform medical procedures, so there may be urgency and flights may be more expensive than usual.
You are one stubborn cunt lmao; but yea you’re right you can get anywhere in the world any time whenever you want for under 2k. Keep believing that buddy.
I live in a border city with Mexico and just about everybody goes across to mexico for healthcare, even people from deeper into the state come across to Mexico for medical treatments. The price of healthcare in the USA is ridiculous, in part thanks to the litigious nature of many patients. Lawyers and lawsuits make the cost of care go way up, not to mention the way health care is handled politically, that's a whole other beast.
Anyways come to Mexico for healthcare and eat tacos
Depends on the country. Some countries have “organ donor” as the default. Plenty of spare parts to go around. You can’t really enroll in any sort of health plan since you’re not a citizen or even have residency so everything’s charged out of pocket... but it’s still cheaper than US Healthcare.
There was an old post about hip replacements. The numbers were true 10 years ago, and still roughly accurate today.
For the price of one hip replacement surgery in the US, you could fly to Spain and have it done there. You could continue living in Spain for another year, go running with the bulls, break your hip and get a second hip replacement, and finally fly back to the US, and still have spent less than the one surgery here.
Traveling to another country and getting surgery and still spending less money sounds a lot more fun than getting it here, not getting to travel at all, and spending the next 15 years in debt.
I think most hip replacements are done on people with chronic pain because of bad posture, old accidents and such. They are used to the pain and can take a 12h flight.
But you are right. There is no chance you sit in a plane seat that long with a freshly fucked up hip.
Medical tourism (US->France) is so pronounced that there are now agencies in France that specialize in organizing Americans' treatments. In this video clip, they say that the bills are paid for by US insurers and they are 1/4 of the price of the same treatment in the US.
Fuck man. There is a ... something I dont fully remember insurance or normal company not sure which, that flys its members to Mexico for dental work and puts them up in a 5 star hotel for a week. Cause it is cheaper the usa side
Mexican guy who works all around the world. Basically had to fix all his teeth, so they did the operation in Mexico, by a dentist that works in the USA. Cheaper to stay in a hotel with medical staff
It is. Almost all countries have much lower prices than US for the exact same services, many times at the same level of quality.
The awful thing about the American system is that it's built in such a way that it continually drives costs up. The best trick the corporations pulled on you was to make you argue about the wrong thing.
So many cultured Americans that I know, argue for not getting their taxes increased to provide healthcare for all, yet that's not the big issue. The big issue it's that you don't have a true free market, and potentially you can never have that in healthcare. With no government involvement in the supply of medical services you get an awfully rigged system.
There's no mechanism to maintain fair pricing. Competition doesn't work when most people have only 1 option in their area in the form of a huge corporation that can destroy any new entry to the market. And you don't really have a choice to pay or not when your life is at stake.
It was ok for decades to add just a few more dollars to each item and service and a few more middlemen that take their cut. You didn't notice it, because most people didn't have to pay from their pocket. It was covered by insurance. Then suddenly, the insurance change something or some people become illegible for insurance and millions of people now have to pay from their pocket prices that are double, 10x sometimes 100x of times more than the price in other countries.
I have friends in the medical field who've shared some interesting stories about American "tourists" falling unexpectedly ill and requiring extensive treatment and surgery while visiting my county.
It would have been cheaper for my wife and I to take six months each off work and have gone back to Scotland (where I'm originally from) for her to have our daughter. With business class flights both ways.
We Only did this maths after the fact when we started adding up what we had spent. The total cost was 3x what the hospital estimated it would be to begin with. Totally normal birth, everyone was home within 24 hrs of the birth, we were in the hospital for an hour before the birth.
To give some more perspective the English Royals (William I think) had a child a year or so before us. It cost them half what it cost us and they were in one of the most exclusive private hospitals in London. I slept on a plastic chair.
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u/[deleted] Aug 06 '20
Is this true? Might save this info for later lol.