Re:US Healthcare Is So Screwed I Fly to Britain for My Medic...
by zaroth on Wednesday February 11, 2015 @02:40PM
(#9035170)
"It was the best medical service I've ever experienced in my life. I would be very happy if U.S. medical care was the same as Mexican medical care."
What you are actually saying is you would be very happy if U.S. medical care was the same as Mexican medical care for tourists carrying US dollars.
The real question is, what is the standard of care for a 50th percentile Mexican national after their own kayaking accident? What percent of their annual discretionary spending does this incident cost them? And is the existing system improving, stable, or on the verge of collapse?
Re:US Healthcare Is So Screwed I Fly to Britain for My Medic...
by wyager on Wednesday February 11, 2015 @03:11PM
(#9035402)
Well, yeah. I said "private", didn't I? And it's not like the good hospitals in Mexico rely on the bad hospitals to exist.
One would expect the average standard of care to be lower because Mexico is much poorer than the U.S.. If you took whatever the good Mexican hospitals are doing and brought it to the U.S., it would presumably be roughly as high-quality and inexpensive.
A family member got in a kayaking accident. They were in severe pain (mostly from their chest area).
We had a concierge doctor drive out to our remote hotel. He did a basic checkup, gave us some pain meds, and called ahead to the nearest private hospital. $100
We drove about an hour and a half to the hospital. A doctor was waiting at the door for us. She was with us for the whole two hours we were there. We got 2 x-rays and an ultrasound. We also got more pain meds at the pharmacy. $150
It was the best medical service I've ever experienced in my life. I would be very happy if U.S. medical care was the same as Mexican medical care.
I realize I never checked up on this: how is the Mexican private medical system regulated? I remember we did very little paperwork, and it seemed like there was much less red tape than at US hospitals.