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Snowman,
Re your comment about 'Follow the money'...its usually a very good guide, but in this case its doesn't work as well.
If you were to in this case it bring you not necessarily to the US but to the private hospitals in the UK that offer a wide range of elective treatments for those who 'need' it. For example there are a large number of private clinics and hospitals centred around Harley Street here in London, who provide completely private health care.
Here the number of US citizens who come over from the US to recieve treatment would lead one believe that it was unavaliable or substandard in the US. Clearly this is not the case...but it offers aspects that are not possible in the US, perhaps discretion, perhaps they are here because a particular surgeon is 'better' than all the others...but to extrapolate from that snapshot is illogical.
That there are medical tourists in not in question, in both directions, but the reasons why need to be examined more closely.. for example there was a recent stroy here...of a middle aged lady who required a hip replacement... she was 'told' it would be 14 months before she could have her op...scandalous, see how rubbish the NHS is...etc etc...
Errr.. wrong... what was left to the very bottom of the story was that this lady was rather larger than average.. she weighed 18 stone.. she had diabetes and smoked like a chimmney... the docs really said... well.. in order to make you healthy enough to have the hip replacement and for it to be a longer term success we'll need to do the following.. weight loss to a reasonable weight for your height...monitor the diabetes so we know its under long term control and help you reduce or quit smoking...all in all a 14 month period to achieve that is reasonable.
(BTW the weight, diabetes and smoking only made the operation more difficult.. they did not preclude it at the time).
Oh no she when off to the US, had it done privately there and then...and after six months needs a revision becuase it hasn't worked correctly.
Now...which system provided the 'best' care...it all depends on your own view of what the best is... the US provided a quick service, giving the customer what she wanted quickly and professionally...
The UK system took a different view, one which put medical needs to the front. Yup she would have had 14 months of help ( and hell) trying to lose weight, quit smoking etc.. but the chances of the hip replacement being a long term success would have been increased. In addition there is a chance that her long term prospects would also have improved).
Neither can claim the other is 'wrong'.. they are different.
(As an aside a 97 year old lady who fell and broke her hip, needing replacement was operated on with-n 72 hours, so 'rationing' is not as 'obvious' as it would seem.)
Seriously folks... as I said before the US system does have advantages over others.. access and quality of hotel care are the primarly strengths, but in pure medical terms there is little clear water between the two approaches. Medics are all relatively well educated, hard working and competent people...whose abilities are on a similar level.
To pretend that US doctors are 'better' than anywhere else is disingenuous, certainly the ones I have mee who come over here to recieve additional training not readily avaliable in the US were very good, certainly peers to the UK ones, but not superior.
But as Snow stated... pays ya money, takes ya pick...
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