Manufacturing way down. Medical services going overseas. With the public education that feeds our “idea” economy continuing to decline from babymaking as a subsidized lifestyle choice, what is there to celebrate here? That we have lawyers galore? Even parasites need a hosts.

..host

Why should the medical industry be any different than the auto industry? If auto can outsource it’s parts and assembly overseas Canada, and Mexico, why is Chrysler, GM, and Ford sitting like 3 stooges in front of the President asking for a bailout? They should be sitting in front of Mexico. The medical industry will follow suit and one day ask for it’s own government bailout. We’ve seen this picture before. Corporate outsourcing til only an expensive shell exist in the U.S.; then ask Santa Claus American citizens for help. Maybe the medical industry needs to go to Canada for a prescription.

Paul, I think you’re probably right. Clearly we need to encourage Americans to look elsewhere to find goods and services, if the cost is better. Maybe we can even import cheap labor so that we don’t have to drive too far for a Whopper Jr. or a small ice cream cone.
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Besides – doctors earn too much money anyways. if we can cut them out of the pie, maybe we can force them to unite and call for universal healthcare. You see, a single global economy is all about leverage. If you can eliminate taxes and tarrifs of foreign goods and services, you can then use those goods and services to undercut the local competition. Leverage.
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So – if you believe in undercutting the American guy next door, do the natural thing and put your money in another nations treasury. Screw America. We’re not protectionists – we’re patriots. We’re gonna find the best deal possible and let the cards fall wherever, because that’s the American way.

While I’m there getting my knee replaced, I will stop into that call center that keeps screwing up my computer. I think the guy’s name is “Roger”. Good old American multi-tasking.

Look for more hacienda health care (cross-border); serviced by regularly scheduled Tuesday & Thursday flights for routine procedures. Flights will include a pre-op, in flight video & a follow up Q&A with medical staff.

That’s awesome! You can get a little vacation while you get your procedure done.
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Yet there continues to be cries of “socialzed medicine” and the belief that government involvemnet will somehow make things worse. Under the private sector the U.S ranks 37th in life expectancy, not just behind the European countries, but lower than such countries as Malta and Iceland. At the same time, the U.S. has the second highest cost in health care expenditures as a percent of GDP. We’re not getting what we are paying for. In this private sector, the health insurance premium for my wife and me is now $17,000 per year. Thank goodness the Republicans did not get to put an income tax on that as they proposed. If only people had listened to Hillary Clinton in the nineties, surely we would have a better system.

Of course, you’ll have a devil of a time getting back in the country, with that ‘potential weapon’ (the IV needle) stuck in your arm and that ‘potential bomb’ (the IV bag filled with ’suspicious liquid’) attached to it.

Dave,
I think you need an in flight sex change. Since Congress keeps raping us, at least you could feel good about it.

A “right” to medical care. Hey, we can do that! After getting out of the Middle East and taxing the rich, we’ll have enough money for medical care, babies, college, & houses for everybody, right? This is the same logic that works around your own dinner table, with your own bills and budget, right? We don’t need any bipartisan sacrifice, cooperation, and citizenship along all spectrums of America, because we can have it all by just getting out of Iraq and taxing those damn rich people, right? Thank goodness that will fix all our problems.

Dear Paul: LOL. Well, I did become a libertarian.

This all sounds good, but here’s a dose of reality:

My college-aged daughter was in Africa, doing some humanitarian work, last year, and needed emergency medical care, and later, an appendectomy. Time was not our friend. The local clinic was barely capable ot giving flu shots.

She was airlifted to a hospital in Nairobi. That cost was $3400, not covered by our health insurance.

The entire procedure was well-handled by the hospital in Nairobi. It was substantially cheaper, and she says the care was superb. But I’m still dealing with our insurance company. We were forced to pay cash for everything and seek reimbursement.

Our health insurer is one of the large major ones, so this kind of occurence shouldn’t have been unusual.

Entire bill? Surgery, two days in the hospital, discharge meds, airlifting–all under $5,000.

I’m told the surgery alone here would’ve been five grand.

Her good health? Priceless.

My frustrations with the insurer, 18 months later: brutal.

Insurers. That’s what’s wrong with health care in our country. Eliminate or reduce their number, and the problem is largly solved.

Glad your daughter’s ok, TA.

It was an anxious day and a half, but it turns out her treating surgeon was the son of Methodist missionaires and trained at IU.

Kismet?
Karma?

It’s scary to feel helpless that far away. I’d advise anyone who’s travelling out of the USA< to check with their health insurance before they leave, in the unlikely event you have to seek medical treament. Their rules are laborious. And tricky.

When one leaves the country, one should really consider not only simple trip insurance, but medical insurance, AND medical transportation insurance, as well.

TA, likely you are doomed against your insurance company unless your policy explicitly covered the charges you are attempting to recover. But, good luck anyway!

This a way for health insurers to put domestic hospitals and doctors on notice to get costs down.

Great idea.

Having seen how totally Earthlink’s “friendly” tech support in India screwed up our Internet service last year, I shudder to think of turning my health over to them! Most of us can barely communicate with medical personnel who speak English. Can you imagine trying to get information about your post-op procedures from someone whose English is limited to what’s on the cheat sheet?

The scariest part of this is that if it costs less, it will quickly become the only way insurance companies will cover those procedures. To the insurers is all about cost, NOT quality.

Folks: Until we require the rest of the world to remunerate their workers as if the were in the USA then we will lose goods and services to other countries and those countries workers will be under paid and not have benefits. Soon, there will be NO jobs available in the USA. This globalization is just a front to destroy our standard of living and country. The globalists couldn’t do it n any other way. Time to put a stop to this crap. !!!

My company purchased a software package from a company based in India. It looked good on the surface and seemed to do what they wanted…at first. The people responsible for the purchase didn’t suss it out completely. I won’t go into details but this package is an architectural nightmare, resource hog, and was coded by people who you think would have known better. Hopefully medical care in India is better than their software engineering.