By Evan Falchuk
In our survey of major U.S. employers, we found very little interest in medical tourism.
But there is a great deal of interest in it among the major media – the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and today, Forbes (via the Associated Press) have done major stories on it.
But here’s something curious.
All three stories have featured the exact same medical tourist – Ben Schreiner of Camden, South Carolina.
Back in March, I wrote about how curious this was. I guess it’s curiouser now.
Are there this few patient stories? Based on our survey, maybe.
Whether medical tourism becomes a trend in America remains to be seen. But since he’s appeared three times, one thing is certainly a trend – Ben Schreiner’s role as the go-to guy for stories on it.
WELCOME Instapundit readers.
This blog is about health care. It is from the perspective of someone actually in the health care business. It is a perspective informed by the health care system as it actually works.
And what it is really about is this: Health care has become focused on the unit cost of care – treating it like something that can be produced on an assembly line.
But it’s not.
It is about thinking, judging, and deciding what is wrong with a patient.
The trouble is, our system systematically undervalues this process. When your doctor can only spend 15 minutes with you, why are we surprised when things go wrong?
Proposed reforms continue to see health care in this light, hoping that through ever-more clever ways to pay for care, we can fix a problem created in that very same way.
If you read this blog, you will see not just the reality of how this works, but also the good news – the stories of patients, doctors, employers and others who are doing real and meaningful things to put right what is wrong. You won’t hear much about it in the media – well, sometimes you will – but there are people out there changing the face of health care even faster than the politicians can. And perhaps you will see what politicians might learn about how to actually make change.
Please visit again, join the discussion, and add your voice to this most important debate.
