Week 7 assignment
Introduction
The strength of a community or a country is directly linked to the health of its people. For you to know how a country or government values its people, check how much it invests in the health of its people. Basic healthcare is very important for the growth of any country. Basic or primary healthcare suffers a lack of personnel in the united states. Most physicians have specialized in handling complex situations among patients while neglecting primary healthcare. Primary healthcare in the USA is still expensive and most citizens still find it hard to afford it especially in private hospitals where healthcare services are of high quality. Shockingly, a country can neglect its citizens as far as primary healthcare is concerned (Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Assuring the Health of the Public in the 21st Century., 2002). I expect that the government should make primary healthcare free or make its insurance affordable for all. Healthcare affordability remains a stalemate in the United States to date due to its high cost. This has made people seek alternative means of treatment and funding. Medical tourism is one of the alternative means of getting health care among most citizens.
Question 1
Medical Tourism and other countries healthcare delivery systems
Medical tourism refers to patients traveling from one country to another to get medical care. The most popular type of medical tourism is where patients move from developing countries to developed countries to get high-quality healthcare. Today, the opposite is happening as well. Patients are traveling from developed countries into developing countries for cheaper medical care. Countries have grabbed medical tourism as an economic opportunity thus lowering medical prices on premium healthcare. This has broken the medical monopoly enjoyed by countries such as the USA over a long period. Countries such as the Philippines and India are among the developing countries that have invested in medical personnel and technology thus attracting patients from all over the world. (Dr. Tomislav Meštrović, MD, Ph.D., 2018).
Question 2
When is enough…. ENOUGH?
People get to the point of enough is enough when their expectations are not met over and over again. Healthcare is very expensive in the united states as compared to other countries in the world, but this is not the main issue. The issue is the quality of healthcare in the country. Regardless of the USA being a developed country, patients die in large numbers due to lack of quality healthcare yet the treatments are expensive. This has made people say ‘enough is enough’ thus seeking medical services to other countries that have quality healthcare and at the same time cheaper.
Various organizations have analyzed the treatment cost in a few countries just to show the difference. A hip replacement procedure in the United States costs $24,000 while in Singapore it cost $15,00, in Thailand $10,000, and in India $6,300. A breast augmentation in USA costs $10,000, in Singapore $8,000, in Thailand $3,150 and in India $2,200. Spinal fusion in the USA costs $62,000, in Singapore $9,000, in Thailand 7,000 and India $5,500. This price comparison shows clearly why medical tourism is an option for many people in the USA. People go to India, Singapore, and other countries because they will get quality medication at a cheaper price (Runckel, 2018).
You might tend to think that the more the cost the higher the quality of medication. India has the best medication in almost all illnesses and their outcomes are pleasing. But in the USA patients die in large numbers regardless of being treated expensively. The government should change the strategy on healthcare and stop spending a lot of money blindly without results (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (US); Office of the Surgeon General (US)., 2016). Even in handling the current OVID-19 pandemic, these other countries have better outcomes than the USA.
Other factors that facilitate medical tourism which include;
Special service. In foreign countries, patients are treated with a lot of respect and honor. They are even escorted to see a doctor and they are checked after, even when they get back to their country. This is a marketing strategy applied by most hospitals that end up attracting foreign patients. Unlike residents of a country who might be ignored even when they are seriously ill. There are numerous death cases especially in the USA that happened as a result of neglect.
Availability of services. Some services are not easily offered to Americans because they are illegal or due to government regulations and conditions regarding the services. For instance, most stem cell therapies are not offered in the USA but there are other countries that offer their alternatives thus attracting foreign patients.
Tourism. Patients who seek medical tourism end up becoming tourists even after receiving medication. Even as patients engage in medical tourism, most of them consider countries with beautiful attraction sites so that it can be part of their tour (Runckel, 2018).
Countries that lead in medical tourism.
India
India is a key and the leading player in medical tourism since it has heavily invested in medical technology thus attracting patients in need of cardiac and orthopedic surgeries. Patients who get their healthcare in India save up to 65% to 90% of their money as compared to the cost of similar mediation in the USA. Apart from the affordability and quality, patients also visit India to see the unique architecture and beautiful scenery.
Brazil
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Brazil offers the best healthcare in Latin America. Brazil has world-renowned surgeons and has 43 hospitals recognized by the JCI. Brazil offers the best quality in plastic and cosmetic surgical services.
Malaysia
In the year 2015 and 2016, Malaysia became number one and won the “Health and Medical Tourism Destination of the year” in the International Medical Travel Journal’s award. Patients who visit Malaysia save up to 65 % to 80% on medication costs as compared to the USA.
Other countries include; Thailand, Turkey, Mexico, Costa Rica, Taiwan, South Korea, and Singapore (Stephano, 2020).
Conclusion
Medical tourism has become a great threat to the USA healthcare system because they are not leaping as they should. Close to 50 million people who find medication expensive in the United stated end up in other countries for treatment where they can get cheap and high-quality healthcare. Most of these patients also lack health insurance which makes it extremely expensive for them to afford healthcare in the USA. Apart from quality and cost, patients also travel abroad for privacy purposes, especially when undergoing treatments that are illegal in the country or those that require a high level of privacy and confidentiality such as plastic surgeries or memory loss issues. The United States is ranked the most expensive in healthcare services and the quality of outcomes is not the best. Americans die in large numbers due to lack of quality healthcare yet it’s expensive and some die because they can’t afford healthcare in the country or traveling for the same abroad (Hu, 2018).