At the PR conference I sat in on one seminar regarding the health care industry. I had no idea the following figures were so high and thought that as the election draws near this may be of interest.
Before I state the facts, I must say that personally I think it's not going to be easy OR quick to change the United States health care industry. You cannot argue though, that something has to be done....we are the United States of America for crying out loud!
The number of Americans traveling outside the U.S. for medical procedures [this used to be mostly cosmetic procedures, where people could recover on the beach drinking cocktails, but now it has become major procedures such as hip replacement]
2007 = 750,000
2008 = 1,500,000
By 2018 = 16,000,000
U.S. providers will have lost $68 billion to outbound medical travel by 2010.
Concierge practices are growing more popular - I hadn't really thought much about this one before - practitioners are sending letters to patients saying they are taking fewer patients and if they would like to stay part of the practice they have to pay an annual fee - $2000 in many cases. I find this shocking.
Whether it's McCain or Obama in office come 2009, there absolutely has to be a change with our system.
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