[quote=EconProf]Sounds like you have made a shrewd move to escape the wasteful and inefficient US medical care system and achieved almost as good a result with far lower costs.
Our medical care is generally great quality, but is larded up with excessive costs because the participants have no incentive to economize. Our third-party payer system means no doctor, hospital, or drug provider has any incentive to restrain their pricing. The patient, especially the poor and elderly who have no (or very little) co-pay or deductible under medicare and medicaid have every incentive to demand the best and most treatment. Our drug companies spend billions to bring a new wonder drug to fruition, and thus subsidize the rest of the world that copies the drug, but does not need to incorporate this cost into the price they can charge their citizens. Tort lawyers scare doctors into over-testing and over-treating. Consumers are denied the benefits of competition by being unable to shop for insurance across state lines. The list goes on.
Mexico has none of these cost drivers, so can charge a more reality-based price in line with the rest of the world. Our costly, larded-up medical system is entirely our own making, and comes from not taking incentives into account by the lawyer-lawmakers who created it.
Your approach may spread because it makes so much sense–at least for Americans who live near the border.[/quote]
Yes, and if anyone thinks electronic health records and CPOE are going to help, think again.
