Outsourcing Transplant Surgery

I wonder how long it will be, before Blue Cross starts requiring people
to fly to the other side of the planet for liver transplants.

href="http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/004054B8-F475-4C40-872D-5E0D91D25B12.htm">Indian
medical care goes global

By Jagpreet Luthra in Delhi

Sunday 18 June 2006, 21:22 Makka Time, 18:22
GMT 



With hospitals in India's cities boasting first world medical care at
third world prices, the country is poised for a major share in the
multibillion dollar global healthcare market.



Until recently, holistic and Ayurvedic cures that combine herbal
medicines with yoga, massage and meditation were the most sought after
by international visitors, but now centres providing conventional
medicine are attracting a huge number of patients from abroad.

 

According to statistics, foreign patients account for 12% of the total
in hospitals such as Breach Candy, Hindujas and Jaslok in Mumbai, the
country's financial capital.

 

Dr KK Aggarwal, a leading cardiologist in Delhi and president of the
Federation of National Capital Region Doctors, told Aljazeera.net:
"Largely they are coming for organ transplant, knee replacement and
open heart, hip and plastic surgery.

 

"Low-cost treatment is the ultimate factor weighing in India's favour
while state of the art equipment and top class doctors also help
attract foreign patients," he says.



While a liver transplant could cost $140,000 in Europe and double that
in the US, it costs about $45,000 in some Indian hospitals such as
Global Hospital in the southern city of Hyderabad.

Even accounting for the plane tickets and lodging, etc., it could be a
bargain.  



Except, if Indian physicians know what is good for them, they'll never
even start to deal with Blue Cross.