TL and Medical Tourism

SteveS · 09-10-2018, 12:14 PM

My next door neighbor happens to be in the business of arranging travel for medical tourism. It's entirely about cost. In the US, hospital costs are mostly defined by how much the insurer will pay without raising a fuss, with the cost of unreimbursed emergency room care built into the overhead the hospital uses to justify prices to insurance companies that raise a fuss about the cost.

By contrast, if someone goes through medical tourism, they fly to Cancun (if they go through my neighbor's business), get their medical procedure done in a hospital (or medical tourism wing of a hospital) equipped to top-of-the-line quality and luxurious comforts, get first class doctors, good (and abundant) nursing care, and recovery in a popular vacation destination. Prices are aimed at making a profit for everyone while still beating the price of domestic hospitals by a lot, even after travel costs.

If you have medical care that can be scheduled, and the time under care doesn't take too much time away from work, it's a big win for the patient. So it's not the place to be treated for a heart attack or cancer (unless you can take off a lot of time for the repeat care in the latter), but it's great for a hip replacement or facelift.

Meanwhile, people in Cancun who depend on the national health care get the sort of care one might expect in a country on the border between developed and third world. It's probably much better than the care a poor person in the US gets, but far short of what wealthy or well-insured people in the US get, or what one can get in the medical tourism hospital.

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In the case of Traveller, medical tourism would be expensive. Even low passage is an expensive trip; Cr1000 is about US$4000, and then the patient has to be away from the homeworld for longer than is optimal for someone with a job. A better model is the mobile hospital -- or even the permanent off-world technology hospital. Most lower technology people can't afford advanced care at the advanced hospital (except for the free vaccination programs they'd offer out of self-interest), but if the world has enough population that the upper class is reasonably numerous, the rich could justify such a facility -- just as a wealthy Mexican could go to the medical tourism hospital for premium care if they weren't satisfied with the regular hospital.

09-10-2018, 12:14 PM	#10
SteveS Join Date: Nov 2013 Location: near Seattle WA USA	Re: TL and Medical Tourism My next door neighbor happens to be in the business of arranging travel for medical tourism. It's entirely about cost. In the US, hospital costs are mostly defined by how much the insurer will pay without raising a fuss, with the cost of unreimbursed emergency room care built into the overhead the hospital uses to justify prices to insurance companies that raise a fuss about the cost. By contrast, if someone goes through medical tourism, they fly to Cancun (if they go through my neighbor's business), get their medical procedure done in a hospital (or medical tourism wing of a hospital) equipped to top-of-the-line quality and luxurious comforts, get first class doctors, good (and abundant) nursing care, and recovery in a popular vacation destination. Prices are aimed at making a profit for everyone while still beating the price of domestic hospitals by a lot, even after travel costs. If you have medical care that can be scheduled, and the time under care doesn't take too much time away from work, it's a big win for the patient. So it's not the place to be treated for a heart attack or cancer (unless you can take off a lot of time for the repeat care in the latter), but it's great for a hip replacement or facelift. Meanwhile, people in Cancun who depend on the national health care get the sort of care one might expect in a country on the border between developed and third world. It's probably much better than the care a poor person in the US gets, but far short of what wealthy or well-insured people in the US get, or what one can get in the medical tourism hospital. - - - In the case of Traveller, medical tourism would be expensive. Even low passage is an expensive trip; Cr1000 is about US$4000, and then the patient has to be away from the homeworld for longer than is optimal for someone with a job. A better model is the mobile hospital -- or even the permanent off-world technology hospital. Most lower technology people can't afford advanced care at the advanced hospital (except for the free vaccination programs they'd offer out of self-interest), but if the world has enough population that the upper class is reasonably numerous, the rich could justify such a facility -- just as a wealthy Mexican could go to the medical tourism hospital for premium care if they weren't satisfied with the regular hospital.