Health Care Globalization, Part 2

Where this blog began, it now returns.

Canadians have always had a theoretical ability to jump the queue and get faster health care by simply going to a hospital in the United States. But the fact that the care would cost tens of thousands - even hundreds of thousands - of dollars kept most people from doing so.

Only the rich could afford it.

But as Leigh Turner, a medical ethicist at McGill University told me, international queue jumping is now a viable option for the middle class because places like India and Singapore offer surgery at prices as low as one-tenth those in the US. That's a potential threat to medicare, he says, because it could lead to pressure to let people spend the money to queue jump at home, keeping the money and jobs here.

It's an issue I examine today in a package of stories in the Saturday Star.

Queue jumpers, mainly from Canada and the UK, make up a big part of the medical tourism industry - about 15 per cent of the worldwide market. Most are still rich people from the Third World looking to get better care or access to better technology outside their own countries. But the focus is expected to shift as North Americans catch on to the idea.

And there's a burgeoning industry on the continent to help them do it. One of those companies, Healthbase Online Inc., helped Jill Misangyi of Hamilton go to India for back surgery she had waited for in Canada for 16 years. The company handled everything - even arranging for her to be picked up at the airport. It was as easy, she says, as booking a trip through a travel agent, and cost about the same as a family vacation.

The medical tourism industry is not huge, but it's growing fast. And as long as there are waiting lists in Canada, there may well be a market for it.

Dr. Brian Day, president of the Canadian Medical Association, says the solution is simple: get rid of the waiting lists. He would like to do this by changing the way hospitals are funded, giving them a financial incentive to do more surgeries. He is also comfortable with letting people pay for faster service at home. Once the waiting lists are gone, he says, Canada could even become a medical tourism destination.

Read all about it in the Saturday Star. It's a big issue that isn't likely to go away any time soon.

Comments

[Eric R. Fisher]

I don't know why you are stigmatizing the medical tourist as jumping the queue. They are leaving the queue, and another Canadian moves up a space. The foreign facilities are presumably private for-profit operations so that the medical tourist is not doing anyone local out of a spot. Would you prefer a moneyed person to spend $20,000 on a fabulous cruise while endlessly waiting for a medical procedure?

[Wojciech langer]

So the woman had been waiting for 16 years for the back surgery hoping to get one . Lets avoid confusion between trying to get a treatment and being on waiting list. She probably wasted (unfortunately) her time "shopping" (with the help of, no doubt, her passionate GP referrals) for surgeon in Canada willing to do it. God only knows how many of them she consulted. But 16 years period cannot be called A WAITING LIST. She just simply did not find anybody willing to fix her spine here. She was not on anybody's "waiting list".

[Kelly Meloche]

Medical Tourism is the gateway that connects health to care. For the approx. 875,000 (The Fraser Institute) Canadians suffering on waiting lists for referrals to specialists or for medical services MT is their roadmap guiding them to a healthier life. Leaving the country to obtain medical care comes with a price as well as a risk. Neither of which compare to the physical and emotional suffering that a frigid waiting list inflicts.

Canadians have been socialized to be all accepting and never questioning of our health care system. Paying for health care procedures feels wrong to Canadians as does placing trust in a ‘foreign’ doctor feels treasonous. This is the emotional junction that either becomes the prison or the catalyst when it comes to care. There is a new norm emerging. The critical mass of those desperately needing healthcare are now carving their own paths and those paths often lead to overseas hospitals..

With the medical tourism industry growing at explosive rates, the challenge is to sift through the mass marketing and establish a check list when considering an overseas hospital. If the patient is doing the research themselves there are key questions that need to be asked. If that same patient is working through a healthcare broker, they need to be satisfied that their broker is referring them to the best healthcare provider for their specific health care needs. A medical tourism advisor “broker” should have a seamless rapport and respect with their healthcare providers that are dually extended to the patient. The care of the patient by the broker should encompass the complete experience taking full responsibility for all parts of the journey except the actual clinical one. This system is designed to offer the patient the opportunity to channel all of their energy on getting well.

Obtaining healthcare outside of Canada is a choice. For some it is a blessing. For everyone it is an education. Quickly we are learning that heading south for care isn’t just for the affluent. It is rather the capability to shift from the waiting list to VIP (very important patient) list through a phone call or a key stroke. We also understand that state-of-the-art medical facilities exist without out-of-this-world price tags for procedures.

Medical Tourism is here to stay. All of the ingredients are in place. Blended properly the world will see a lot more smiles like that of Jill Misangyi.