TL and Medical Tourism

[tanksoldier]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

I think you know that's not the main reason Americans go out of country for medical procedures. The reason is purely due to our jacked up prices and lack of national healthcare.

I pretty much said straight out it’s because it’s cheaper, but thanks for playing.

...and thanks for adding pointless current politics to a thread about a society hundreds or thousands of years in the future... which notably doesn’t have national healthcare either.

So while certainly possible for one or more Traveller planets to suffer similarly, it's not really an issue of TL alone.

I don’t think all the starlets headed to Mexico for boob jobs are covered by Mexico’s national healthcare system... and you’ll note that the country most people DO come to when they need the best care, is the one without the national health care system.

...and if you’d like to know what national healthcare is really like, go qualify to be treated by the VA and then die in the parking lot waiting for an appointment while they repeatedly cancel them so their attendance records look good. Have a heart attack in a hospital bed there while nurses laugh about the fact that none of them know how to use a crash cart.

...and watch those employees responsible for the deaths of patients keep their jobs because they are federal employees and immune from firing.

I qualify for the VA and would rather pay out of pocket than soil the soles of my shoes by setting foot in the place.

...but the POINT is, in Traveller, if a given lower tech planet can do a procedure at their tech level it will be cheaper than the same procedure on a high tech planet for a number of reasons. The only reason to have most procedures done on a high tech planet is if you’re already there and the procedure is so trivial that it’s not worth the trip, or if the procedure can only be done at the higher tech level.

Another possibility that might evolve would be a variation of the Doctors without Borders concept.

I have actually wondered about starships with sickbay facilities setting up medical practice in the extraterritorial starport areaespecially in under developed planets.