The Complete Patient

There's lots of handwringing in the media about the fact that health care insurance coverage rose 7.7 per cent this year, which is more than double the overall inflation rate. And the situation can only get worse as the population ages, argue the pundits.

Well, I suspect that the situation is going to change, that costs will level out. The reason is that there's the scent of competition in the wind. The previous item, about the big retail chains providing health care services, is part of a newly emerging picture. Another part is emerging overseas competition in hospital services. American patients are heading to Thailand for heart bypass surgery that costs 80% less than in the U.S., and is of equal or better quality, reports NPR. Insurance companies are beginning to offer the overseas option to patients, letting them share in the savings.

Hey, if you can take your child to Wal-Mart when she has a strep throat on a Sunday, get service in ten minutes and walk out with your antibiotics for, say, $100, versus going to a hospital emergency room, waiting five hours, and paying $400 for the same outcome, which will you choose? Going to Thailand for a $10,000 heart bypass operation, versus $50,000 in the U.S., may take a bit more convincing, but as patients return with enthusiastic stories about the wonderful Thai nursing care and luxurious hospitals, attitudes will change.

As my mother said when I explained to her that the big retail chains are taking flu vaccine business from doctors, "It couldn't happen to nicer people."