From US to them

This really is an outsourcing heist of sorts!!

When I bought my traveler's health insurance I was arguing about how I might never need even a dollar of the $50,000 amount that the insurance company provided as a limit and that they give me some plan which had a smaller cap limit for lesser charge.But then when I realized that an investigation in the US costs the same amount as back home with only the rupee prefix replaced by dollars I think no amount is small here.


I used to think that traveling and staying in a foreign country was always going to be something of a Achilles heel for 'Health tourism'. But it is apparently not.....

"Foreign health insurance firms, especially from the US, are making a beeline to the country. Global players like Blue Cross, Blue Shield, Cigna Insurance and Aetna insurance are hot-footing it to India not only to set shop but also to explore options to send patients from US and Europe to India for life-saving procedures like coronary bypass surgery and heart valve replacement.
This is no medical tourism, but an organised, off-shoring of good healthcare insurance. The New England Journal of Medicine refers to them as “medical refugees” — patients keen to go to foreign countries for life-saving and life-enhancing procedures like hip and knee replacements and save on insurance premiums.
Germany-based DKV Group, which has teamed up with the Apollo group of hospitals, is also eager to set up a standalone health insurance company in India to cater to this huge and growing overseas demand. The firm has applied for a licence to the regulatory authorities.
Dismayed by the high surgical costs in US, American patients are packing their bags to have necessary surgery performed in India. Health insurance firms are holding their arms leading them to international destinations to be treated by paying a fraction of the premium they pay in US.
American health insurer Cigna Insurance, which was present in the country a couple of years ago, is looking to make a comeback. The earlier arrangement enabled Cigna’s covered members to access treatment at reputed hospitals in the country.
“People are getting desperate for good, cheap and realiable medical care,” says Vishal Bali, CEO, Wockhardt Hospitals, who had an earlier tie-up with Cigna.
“Cost is a major factor. Hospitals in India usually charge around $6,000-8,000 for coronary bypass surgery, $6,500 for a joint replacement and $6,500 for a hip resurfacing, which represent a small fraction of the typical costs at US hospitals.
‘‘India is not just known for its outsourced back-office skills any more, such as reading of X-rays, medical transcription or billing. It’s the actual clinical care that is now being outsourced,’’ says Bali.


What is interesting is that if lesser wait time is an incentive and cost of treatment is not( as I think would be with patients from UK)then potentially the hospitals in India would be 'legitimate'( I believe this is morally illegitimate) in charging at a rate much higher than prevalent Indian fees( are there any??!!?) and equivalent to rates charged in their home country.


Where all...this outsourcing in health might lead to is a speculative topic...will there be layoffs like in the tech sector? Will American doctors cry hoarse and election campaigns and cartoon strips find fodder in ridiculing the accents and work culture of the brown doctors? What is the continuing incentive for the Insurance companies, how do they measure Quality Control,commodify nonoperative care?Will it result in new hospitals in India?Will medical professionals who migrated for the lucre make that green-back-pack trip home? Could we have Nomad doctors?
I don't know answers to these Qs. I would be a freakonomist Freed-Man or own a couple of these companies if I did, wouldn't I?