Medical insurance pays for overseas surgery

[Chuckanut]

It seems that some patients and doctors are flying to Mexico to perform surgeries that are to expensive to do in the USA. It's amazing to me that some insurance company has not come up with a plan to lower premiums if some people will get their surgery done in places like Mexico.

https://khn.org/news/to-save-money-american-patients-and-surgeons-meet-in-cancun/

Emphasis added.

The hospital costs of the American medical system are so high that it made financial sense for both a highly trained orthopedist from Milwaukee and a patient from Mississippi to leave the country and meet at an upscale private Mexican hospital for the surgery.

Ferguson gets her health coverage through her husband’s employer, Ashley Furniture Industries. The cost to Ashley was less than half of what a knee replacement in the United States would have been. That’s why its employees and dependents who use this option have no out-of-pocket copayments or deductibles for the procedure; in fact, they receive a $5,000 payment from the company, and all their travel costs are covered.

The very same implant she would have received at home costs $3,500 at Galenia, compared with nearly $8,000 in the United States, Flores said.

 

[Bir48die]

My SIL had a full face pull in Mexico and saved a ton O money. They did a nice job and had an awesome recovery spa

 

[bingybear]

this use to be common, but it had to be major bucks. They would even fly some family members over.

There is quite a business in medical tourism.