Medical Tourism, Revisited

Chaos has remarked upon this phenomenon several times in the past, both because of personal experience with the dysfunctional, expensive, highly wasteful US healthcare system and because well, there just doesn't seem to be a viable solution, now or in the future, other than going abroad for medical treatment if one is un- or under-insured. At any rate, the nation's paper of record has now "discovered" the practice, which would not be particularly notable save for the helpful hints at the bottom of the piece. Give it a read, and contemplate the implications of a civilized society whose values are such that it regards medical care as a profitable commodity, and which leaves upwards of 50 million of its citizens uninsured.

The Price of Health Care: Going On Vacation

Long ago, Chaos wrote on the growing prevalence of medical tourism, in which Americans, who lack health insurance or funds to pay for wildly expensive medical procedures, have begun traveling abroad to find the care they needed at prices they can afford (read: 1/10th of US prices). Chaos has not read much about it in the interim, but it is still alive and well...here's an example, wherein South Korea is getting in on some of the action. (India, Thailand, and South Africa are primary participants). Notable is the projection that 6 million people may be doing this by 2010. Ponder for a moment, readers, about the spectacle of a country which sends its residents abroad for medical necessities. Declining empire, indeed.