I certainly agree that it's a complex question; that's why I asked. Your answers respond to my first alternative; what about the second?
What if one could tie such a program to specific cross-subsidization of investments in health care for the locals? In this sense, it would be like fair trade coffee: a participant in the program would be agreeing to pay a higher price than they would otherwise (although still far less than they would if they purchased the health care in the U.S.) in exchange for a certification by someone that there was "sufficient benefit to the locals." What if you could do it in Haiti? What if you said: if we can get X number of Americans to come to this facility in Haiti for medical care, we're going to give free health care to every Haitian in a five mile radius. In the same facility: that's how we're going to pay for it. It'll be like Ladies' night at the bar. No cover charge for Haitians. You have a bunch of foreign doctors in Haiti already. They can care for foreigners, to subsidize their care for Haitians. The presence of the foreign patients can be a quality check of the care for the Haitians. On Fri, Apr 20, 2012 at 7:15 PM, Gar Lipow <[email protected]> wrote: > On Fri, Apr 20, 2012 at 10:55 AM, Robert Naiman > <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> what if someone would organize a project to promote "responsible >> medical tourism"? the idea would be to promote medical tourism to >> either 1) a place or places where the locals do get health care and/or > 2) >> a place or places where the dollars that come in from foreigners > for >> health care are leveraged to cross-subsidize health >> care for the locals. >> > > > These things always sound great in the abstract. Cuba probably comes > closest to what you are talking about. They are famous for providing > good medical for their people. And people from outside Cuba can come > and get medical care, and (in theory at least) that goes to subsidize > the Cuban people. (Of course people from outside Cuba who can't afford > to pay even Cuban are also sometimes treated in Cuba - but that is > different from medical tourism to Cuba.) > > However, the clinics that treat tourists in Cuba offer treatments that > are not available to most Cubans - available only to top government > official. So even this best case scenario has its problems. I'll > leave it people more familiar with Cuba than I am with whether on net > the Cuban people are better off with medical tourists than without > them. > > Another case is Costa Rica that offers something along the lines of a > Universal Single Payer health system for the people of Costa Rica that > covers very basic care and then those who can afford it buy > supplemental plans. U.S. citizens with at least $1,000 a month (which > most but not all people on Social Security have) can legally move to > Costa Rica and buy into that medical system for $50 a month. Again > I'll leave it those who know more about the overall effects than I do > if this is a gain or a loss for ordinary Costa Ricans. > > At any rate, I think these are two best case examples. If a more > detailed look at them says medical tourism works well for either the > people of Cuba or the people of Costa Rica (most people I mean) then > you have a good suggestion. If neither works, then it is something to > be very careful of before going forward. >> -- >> Robert Naiman >> Policy Director >> Just Foreign Policy >> www.justforeignpolicy.org >> [email protected] >> _______________________________________________ >> pen-l mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > > > > -- > Facebook: Gar Lipow Twitter: GarLipow > Solving the Climate Crisis web page: SolvingTheClimateCrisis.com > Grist Blog: http://grist.org/author/gar-lipow/ > Online technical reference: http://www.nohairshirts.com > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l -- Robert Naiman Policy Director Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org [email protected] _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
