Have you ever wondered what a trip to Central America might be like? On a motorcycle? For dental care?!
BridgeHealth International client Doug French tells his two-wheeled story on his blog:
“About four years ago I went to a dentist in the states with the idea that after years of either neglect or simply not having the money or insurance to keep up on my teeth, I was going to do what ever it took to get them up to where they needed to be. I was working on a very good case of periodontal disease that I didn’t even know about. Mainly due to not going to the dentist enough, getting my teeth cleaned regularly, and other bad habits like diet and smoking.The amount of money just for a crown, let alone a root canal or an implant, as most people know in the states is very expensive. To look at having to get several, well, it seemed not even worth looking at for where I was at during that time in my life.
So I started my journey back to trying to recover my teeth and have a healthy mouth once again.”
For all that much of the news about medical travel and tourism has to do with uninsured or underinsured patients needing major surgery — much of medical tourism is about somewhat less lifesaving care.
And by that, I mean dental treatment. According to a recent report from CBS News, part of its “Other America” series, more than one hundred million Americans do not have dental insurance. The lack of coverage is leading to problems such as school absence, unemployment and even death.
Hundreds of thousands of Americans go abroad for dental work where they can save from 50 to 90 percent on major work including dental implants, crowns, veneers and full mouth reconstruction. BridgeHealth International works with dentists, oral surgeons and implantologists in several countries to get otherwise unaffordable care for clients.
(Video direct from CBS News; There’s a short advertising lead-in.)
It took me a full day to decide whether or not the above headline worked for me at all. Undeniably, the European Commission, which has broad power over economic policy for most of Europe, is supporting transnational regulation for healthcare in the 27-member European Union (EU). (News link)
Almost immediately upon the announcement of the proposal, Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) was freaking out.
“Millions of patients will be able to travel abroad for free medical treatment within three years under European plans,” was the breathless lead in The Telegraph, which went on to say:
The new rules will allow patients to buy hospital, outpatient or dental treatment in any EU country and send the bill to the National Health Service.
Experts predicted that the rules could spark an exodus of patients from the NHS due to concerns about long waiting times and hospital superbugs.
Once adopted the new laws will give patients the right to claim back the cost of any medical procedure up to the amount it would have cost in their home country.
Further down in the article, the NHS had its say:
“… Health Secretary Alan Johnson is fighting for the right to make patients obtain NHS permission in advance for major operations.
The health department said: ‘We are absolutely committed to ensuring that the NHS retains the ability to decide what care it will fund.’
The proposal represents a potential boon to medical travel and tourism businesses and facilities in Eastern Europe especially, along with perhaps Portugal, Spain and those Western European countries that have lower costs than Great Britain — along with no waiting lists, for which the NHS is notorious. The reaction from India was also immediate — the EU proposal was called a “major setback” to Indian medical tourism, which has been courting NHS outsourcing for years now.
Can the NHS and Britain buck the Commission? Perhaps. The proposal isn’t set in stone. But there is a certain aura of inevitability about medical tourism in Europe …
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