US healthcare in crisis:

Will tens of thousands of Americans become medical tourists?

The driving force behind the globalisation of healthcare is economics. At US$2.4 trillion in annual expenditures, the US healthcare industry is, by far, the largest industry in the world, significantly outpacing US national defence spending, and projected to reach US$4.1 trillion by 2016.
Viewing healthcare as a huge potential export, the US should be trying to capitalise on the quality healthcare offered by its hospitals and physicians. But instead, the domestic system is getting so expensive that the US has effectively started to price itself out of world markets. This not only affects healthcare as an exportable product of the US, but US manufacturers and service providers in industries offering health insurance to their employees must then add this cost to the price of their exports and labour costs, making the US less globally price competitive.
By 2010, the cost of healthcare per US citizen is projected to rise from its current average of US$7,110 to US$9,216 per person. At that point, Americans will spend approximately US$1 trillion more per year on healthcare than in 2000 – a 58 percent increase in 10 years. By 2015, healthcare is expected to rise from 16 to 20 percent of the Gross Domestic Product.
Whereas, in the past, patients from around the world used to seek high-quality care from US providers, Modern Healthcare reported in May that the number of patients leaving the US for medical treatment is growing at a faster rate than the number of patients coming in for treatment. It follows that by outsourcing healthcare to other countries, the US is furthering its trade imbalance.
There are large retail price differences between the US and other countries for certain surgical procedures, so it is no wonder US residents in control of their healthcare dollars are seeking care abroad. These include those who are uninsured, underinsured or have health plans that reward cost savings for international travel.
But while Insurance pays rates comparable to some of the Asia and Latin American countries for similar procedures, the US uninsured and underinsured do not have access to this same-rate structure and suffer from retail pricing and cost shifting. Both 60 Minutes and BusinessWeek have reported on this economic phenomenon in recent years, creating increased awareness for patients in need of care who can’t afford US prices.