You Want Me To Go Where For Surgery?
Working in a hands-on job like nursing, I never thought it possible for off-shore providers to provide nursing services. After all, people can't start their own IVs with instructions over the phone or a computer. How wrong I was. Some insurance companies are now encouraging people to go to India for elective surgery.
The insurance companies want this because the savings are unbelievable. Doctors and nurses in India earn only a tiny fraction of what they earn here, so the hospitalization costs are much less. American hospitals aren't happy about this. It's not possible to compete with Indian hospitals because no American nurse or doctor will work for third world wages. Since American hospitals can't be squeezed for any more blood, the solution is to send patients to India for surgery.
The hospitals are said to be first rate, but really, if you needed to have your gallbladder removed, would you want to get on a plane to India?
So far, no one is being forced to go to India for treatment. The incentives are financial, such as no co-pays or getting a share of the savings.
How would you feel about traveling to India for surgery?
Written by Melissa on 12:34 AM
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Melissa blogging from sunny Santa Clarita, Southern California, United States.
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8 Comments:
I don't think I would like to get on a plane and go all that way but I do believe that the care is good. Every Indian doctor or nurse that I have been seen by here was excellent and they do know their stuff. I don't know what the hospitals in India are like however.
Same is happening here except they're sending them to Asia....especially for dental surgery, basically because of the price!
Well, if I could combine the surgery with a vacation it might not be such a bad idea ;-)
I don't even trust American hospitals! :)
Madwag, I agree with you that Indian doctors and nurses are well trained and if they want to come here, that is fine with me. I just don't want to go there.
Michelle, I would be really upset if I needed dental work and the insurance company sent me plane tickets someplace.
Karen, I'm a spoiled rotten American. I don't want to go to a third world country, even on vacation.
Dave, I don't either. I also can't imagine how awful it would be to be released from the hospital and be in pain, nausiated and exhausted and then have to navigate through an airport and then spend 12 or 14 hours on a plane, sitting upright.
If Rani and Preity were my nurses, dressed in white saris, and... oops, sorry, I was off on a Bollywood fantasy.
Alan, and what if you traveled all the way to India and all you got was Balwinder to take care of you? :)
Ask him for an autographed CD, I guess.
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