| As Health Costs Soar, More Find Care Overseas
WHEN SHE WAS diagnosed with a fibroid tumor last year, Kathleen Dodds found herself in a bind. She didn't have health insurance because she couldn't afford it. With no insurance, the surgery she needed was prohibitively expensive. "They were quoting me $30,000, tentatively, paid out of pocket," says Dodds, 42, a Portland, Ore.-based horse trainer. "There was no way I could afford it here." But 7,200 miles away in India was an affordable solution. Through IndUSHealth, a company in Raleigh, N.C., that arranges medical care in India for U.S. citizens, Dodds flew out to the Apollo hospital in Delhi, where she had a successful hysterectomy that allowed her to return to her horseback riding students just two-and-a-half weeks later. The total cost: just under $10,000, including round-trip airfare, transportation to and from the hospital, a one-week hospital stay where she says she was treated with more care and attention than she had ever experienced in the U.S., capped by 10 days at a "gorgeous hotel." "It was actually a pleasant situation, considering that I was having major surgery," she says.
Pennsylvania, Other States Lead Efforts To Expand Health Insurance ...
Recent legislation introduced by Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D), which includes loosening regulations against nonphysician health care professionals is an "example of states stepping into a void created by a lack of federal action on health care reform," the AP/Houston Chronicle reports. Rendell's "Prescription for Pennsylvania" legislation would allow nonphysician health care professionals to provide basic health care with the aim of lowering state health care costs. Nonphysicians would be legally allowed to perform doctors' basic duties, such as taking medical histories and performing physicals. Dental hygienists would be allowed to practice without supervision from a dentist in certain situations, such as at schools or clinics, and midwives would be allowed to prescribe drugs. In addition, the legislation allows nonphysicians to be designated as primary care physicians for insurance purposes and requires insurance companies to include nonphysicians in all health care provider networks.
Health-Care System Isn't Healthy, But Insurers' Bottom Lines Are
Dear Mr. Berko: When you spoke at the fundraiser for our church about the future of our country, you pointedly said that we must have a single-payer health-care system. You noted that there are 41 million uninsured in the country who can't afford health care. You said they must have medical access but (and the following are your words) "the health-insurance industry's intentional high costs exclude them from participation." Are you nuts or something? How can you preach such socialistic ideas in a capitalistic society? They would be able to afford health care if they were worth more to their employers so they would be paid better. Do you know how much our leftist government has screwed up our country? And it would do the same without a private health- care system if we allowed it to happen.
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