Employers favour overseas medical care

Most Americans have health insurance through their employers. As the American economy is moving from a manufacturing based economy to service based economy, health insurance coverage has become less stable. The service sector offers less access to health insurance than its manufacturing counterparts. In addition to this, there is an increasing reliance on part-time and contract workers who are not eligible for coverage. Thus workers having access to employer-sponsored health insurance is decreasing.

Rapidly rising health insurance premiums are the main reason cited by all small firms for not offering coverage. The average annual increase in inflation has been 2.5 percent while health insurance premiums for small firms have escalated an average of 12 percent annually. Companies that do offer health insurance, often require employees to contribute a larger share toward their coverage. Employee spending for health insurance coverage (employee’s share of family coverage) has increased 120% (from $135/month to $248) between 2000 and 2006.

A study found that 29 percent of people who had health insurance were “under insured” with coverage so meager that they often postponed medical care because of costs. U.S. health care costs have gone so outrageous that some small employers save money by flying workers to foreign countries for inexpensive medical procedures.

While global medical tourism has yet to make major inroads with U.S. employers, some small employers and benefit providers are starting to take the idea seriously. Until recently, medical tourists were mostly individuals seeking low-priced cosmetic and elective surgery not covered by insurance. But more than one million Americans will travel overseas for procedures this year, and a rising proportion are getting insurers or employers to pay part of the cost. Surgery overseas costs 30 to 80 percent less than it does in the U.S., thanks to lower fees for even top-quality doctors and hospitals.

Courtesy:
www.consumeraffairs.com
www.nchc.org