Healthcare Reform — Which Way Do We Go?

It now appears all but certain that healthcare reform is coming, perhaps sooner rather than later. As the US Congress and health industry lobbyists gather inside the Washington, D.C. Beltway, the atmosphere for dramatic change is boiling through the halls of K Street office buildings and stretching straight to the chambers of our nation’s Capital. But what will this change mean to average American citizens? 

Although the final details of the healthcare reform bill have yet to be concluded, according to Dr. Bernadine Healy in “7 Ways Health Reform Is Going to Affect You,” in this weeks issue of US News & World Report, “enough common threads have emerged to indicate that people should start looking beyond the headlines now for an idea of how the new system will affect them personally” In this article, Dr. Bernadine highlights seven ways that our healthcare experience will change as a result.   

The common thread of these changes entails massive taxation and redistribution from one sector of our economy to another. However, this multi-trillion dollar undertaking will impact everyone, as targeted consumptions taxes will likely be levied on items from sodas to wine and much in-between. 

Aside for the huge spending required to overhauling our ailing healthcare system there was one point that is gaining more traction as a valid alternative to the ever-increasing price, which is referred to as medical tourism, or treatment abroad.  

For many years now many uninsured and underinsured Americans have been traveling to foreign countries to undergo surgical procedures ranging from hip and knee replacements, spinal fusions, total disc replacements, and hysterectomies, to all forms of cosmetic and dental procedures. 

According to Dr. Healy, medical tourism may “become routine as a way to save insurance plans as much as 80 percent of the cost.” With this much savings it is easy to see why medical tourism is gaining so much attention as the debate for change heat’s up.   

However, when considering all the benefits of medical travel, the patient’s safety should not be overlooked. There are many issues to consider when traveling thousands of miles away from home to undergo surgery. The logistics alone are a major undertaking and the margins for error are daunting. This is where the use of a medical tourism facilitator can ease the potential pitfalls of a medical retreat. Medical tourism facilitators like MedRetreat guide each individual through a highly structured process from the very beginning until well after the patient has returned home to best guarantee a safe and stress free experience. 

Medical tourism is not brand new concept in the U.S. — Thousands of North Americans have already laid the path for this industry to begin serving the mainstream.

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