Numbers of uninsured dropped

In a recent report released by the census bureau, they state that the number of uninsured has decreased 3.2% to 45.7 million, which is 15.3% of the population. According to this article here at Modern Healthcare, authorities state that the reasons why uninsured numbers have decreased is still unknown. The number of uninsured children has dropped as well to 8.1 million, down from 8.7 million in 2007 which is a 6.9% drop.

Destination Medical Care: The way of the future?

In a recent edition of the McKinsey Quarterly, they discuss the relatively growing phenomenon of destination surgery. The MKQ defined destination surgery as anyone who travels abroad in order to receive healthcare, which does not include emergency cases treated in foreign countries or residents living in foreign countries and receiving medical care there. Currently, the numbers are small, but there is a potential for this industry to grow for a variety of reasons.

Health services, the underinsured, and those luring in patients from other countries, and foreign health services providers are just some of the people that stand to be affected by this new, growing trend.

The majority of people going to other countries for medical services so do for better services. Forty percent have surgery in another country in order to be treated by the advanced technologies. This category mostly includes people from Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Canada traveling to the United States for specialists. In the second largest group, at 32%, those living in the developing world travel to other countries for better quality health care. The United States is 99% of patients in the fourth group. Nine percent of patients leave their own country for surgery in order to find lower costs for necessary procedures. For the most part, people leaving their home country for medical services in another are equally spread through out the developed and developing world.

With one of the best medical staffs in the world, it’s easy to see why the USA attracts patients from around the world for specialty procedures. But, with the expense of health care, should medical companies be afraid of loosing simple procedures to other doctors in other countries?