Foreigners turn to India in search of cut-price, life-saving cures
I know the article and the discussion is about access to drugs, but I must call out that part of the success of medical tourism in India is the lack of stranglehold control over medical care by insurance companies. In India, I can:<p>- Get an estimate for service <i>before</i> it happens, and plan for it therefore.<p>- Pay for the service <i>at the time of discharge</i> with&#x2F;without insurance<p>- <i>decide by myself</i> if i want to get a specific procedure done or not - no fuss of &quot;does the insurance cover it?&quot;. Of course, this is one area where the costs of service being inherently low helps.<p>- get all my medical records <i>in my hand</i><p>These are basic patient freedoms, IMO, that the insurance industry in the US has taken away.<p>I dont know the history of how it came to be this way in the US, but as it stands, the situation is very geared towards getting mystery service - you dont know what you&#x27;re allowed until you&#x27;re refused, you dont know how much the service cost you until months later and even then in multiple bills from various hosiptals, doctors practices and specialists, and you have to ask for your records because <i>you</i> cannot keep them safe!<p>I have all my records from every treatment in India, but not one coherent,collated record of my last physical checkup in the US. There&#x27;s something broken there.