Medical Jobs Going Offshore

[Dr. Shane]

Mexican Hospitals Aim To Attract More Americans

Americans struggle to pay for health care or health insurance, hospitals in Mexico are expanding in hopes of attracting more patients from north of the border — in addition, a rapidly growing industry is marketing "medical tourism" to Americans.

Hospitals in Tijuana — just a half-hour's drive from San Diego — can do many medical procedures for half or one-third the cost in the U.S.

Grupo Angeles is the largest private hospital network in Latin America. Its hospital in Tijuana is a modern six-story building. Its glass lobby accented with orange looks like it could be the set for a soap opera.

Carlos Zavala Ruiz, the business director for Hospital Angeles Tijuana, says this facility opened three years ago.

"As you can see, all the equipment is just brand new," he says.

Right now, about 50 percent of this hospital's business comes from north of the border. Americans mainly come for elective surgeries, like hip and knee replacements, laser eye surgery and plastic surgery.

The greatest number come for treatments for extreme obesity. Hospital Angeles offers gastric bypass surgeries; it inserts gastric sleeves and installs lap bands...

Gray has a body mass index of 42, which puts her in the extremely obese category. After years of failed diets, she hopes gastric bypass surgery will finally help her to lose weight. She flew from Wisconsin to San Diego, where a driver from the hospital met her and brought her here. Gray, who doesn't speak Spanish, says the entire procedure has gone more smoothly than she expected.

"I was checked in, had my blood withdrawn, X-ray — all within about an hour," she says. "I know that that is impossible in the U.S. I work in hospitals. It just doesn't happen that fast."

Gray paid $12,000 for this operation — about one-third of what she says it would have cost back home in Wisconsin.

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[Dr. Shane]

Not having to wait forever and a day is one thing I really like about Mexican hospitals. I needed some lab work done here in the US. I had to make an appointment 30 days in advance. When I arrived for the appointment they informed me my health insurance wouldn't cover it and it was going to cost $110. So I went to a Mexican hospital and asked how much it cost. They told me $20. I asked the if I could make an appointment. They looked at me funny and told me they could do it right then and have the results within 60 to 90 minutes.

[Pockey]

Yeah, this seems to be more and more common now. 60 Minutes did a feature awhile ago about medical "tourists" that were going to places like India for joint replacement surgeries. Also, speaking of medical jobs going offshore, some tele-radiology jobs are being outsourced as well. Your x-ray and ct scans may be read by a doctor in India.

Bottom line, we need universal health care in the U.S. yesterday, and hopefully Obama and Tom Daschle can start making that happen. Unfortunately Obama has a lot on his plate already right now.