Medical travel stories and news

Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick recently announced that they’ll be having twins this summer. And they’re not the only ones. According to Ireland’s Independent, Robert De Niro, Kelsy Grammer, Agnela Basset and Ricky Martin have all resorted to surrogacy. Melissa Brissman, head of a U.S. surrogacy law firm, says that “We’re now seeing a lot of celebrities using surrogates to have children which, in turn, is making the process more socially acceptable among ordinary Americans."...read more...

By publishing its guidelines on overseas medical travel in 2008, the American Medical Association has recognized the role that overseas medical procedures plays in meeting the U.S. healthcare needs. While the guidelines are somewhat brief, and aimed more towards insurance providers and employers, they do also provide individuals some additional guidance in choosing whether or not to pursue overseas medical options.

The guidelines themselves say:

NEW AMA GUIDELINES ON MEDICAL TOURISM

The AMA advocates that employers, insurance companies, and other entities that facilitate or incentivize medical care outside the U.S. adhere to the following principles:
(a) Medical care outside of the U.S. must be voluntary....read more...

In trawling the net for information about hip resurfacing, and especially hip resurfacing overseas, I found quite a bit of interesting information. First, the U.S. doesn't seem to have approved hip resurfacing procedures until 2006. As a result, the most experienced hip resufacing doctors are, in fact, outside the U.S.

Just as interesting, there are a wide range of sources with hip resurfacing testimonials. The folks at SurfaceHippy have probably put together the most comprehensive site, with quite a range of good information including:...read more...

Another recent medical travel report - Medical Tourism: Global Competition in Health Care - compiles quite an interesting list of facts and statistics.

Some of them include:

1) Medical tourism is moving from the affluent to the less affluent - both looking for affordable health care.
2) Cost savings examples show savings of 50% to 80%, supported by lower labor costs, lower malpractice costs, lower insurance overhead, fewer regulatory requirements, streamlined services, fewer cross subsidies among different medical services....read more...