Medical "Tourism"

Man -- you really gotta like doctors to use the above two words in such close proximity.

Many Americans travel overseas for medical care in such countries as India, Singapore, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Malaysia, Mexico, Dubai, and Thailand. For example, according to MediTravels (http://www.meditravels.org/home.htm) a heart-valve replacement that costs $200,000 or more in the US costs about $10,000 in India – and that includes round-trip airfare and a brief vacation package. Furthermore, MediTravel states that one heart institute in India that performs almost 15,000 heart operations per year has a patient mortality rate during surgery of only 0.8 percent, less than half that of most major hospitals in the United States.

Sounds tempting. But I think I’d take my “brief vacation package” prior to the surgery . . .