Thursday, November 13, 2008

Goin' to New Delhi with an achin'...in my knee

This is an interesting development. Wellpoint is offering people working for Serigraph in West Bend, WI the option to travel to other countries for non-emergency surgery, specifically India. What amazes me about this is that it is actually cheaper to fly someone to India and have surgery than it is for someone to have surgery here. I don't know that this will work, as I don't think there would necessarily be a high level of trust in doctors abroad with a lot of people. But, there is that much cost savings? Clearly something is out of whack with health care costs in this country.

Would I do it to waive the deductible and copay? I am probably not a good person to ask because I like to travel. But, for non-emergency surgery? I don't know...I can't dismiss the idea out of hand, especially if the hospital and doctor(s) are properly accredited. But, the cost of missed work, passport, etc makes me wonder if it would be worth the cost. I will give Serigraph and Wellpoint points for creativity.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think that it will no longer be that much less expensive here or over there once we have Socialized Medicine, I mean Universal Healthcare in the U.S.