HealthCare Options for those in USA

Snuffy

Bronze
May 3, 2002
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Took daughter to Emergency Room here in USA. A doctors intern looked at her. Spent all of five minutes with her. No test were done. Cost $1500. I have insurance. But that is an insane amount of money for that service. @Hello Rob@. I could have flown her to the DR and took her immediately to a doctor and did it cheaper than that. The DR has a gold mine opportunity if they could just get it together. Fly patients first class to the DR, person picks them up in a Lincoln Town Car, takes them to nice hotel, picks them up next morning, takes them to get treatment or operation or whatever, when time...back to hotel to rest and feast for three or four days....maybe some beach time or pool time. Go to airport, first class back home. This could be a serious industry.

How prevalent is this type of service in the DR?
 

cobraboy

Pro-Bono Demolition Hobbyist
Jul 24, 2004
40,964
936
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P.J. O'Rourke said:
Health care is too expensive, so the Clinton administration is putting a high-powered corporate lawyer in charge of making it cheaper. (This is what I always do when I want to spend less money ? hire a lawyer from Yale.) If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free.
I love me some PJ...:cheeky:

To answer your question, Medical Tourism is, in fact, an industry in thr DR. Look how many platic surgeon threads there are on DR1...
 

mountainannie

Platinum
Dec 11, 2003
16,350
1,358
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elizabetheames.blogspot.com
wow!

Took daughter to Emergency Room here in USA. A doctors intern looked at her. Spent all of five minutes with her. No test were done. Cost $1500. I have insurance. But that is an insane amount of money for that service. @Hello Rob@. I could have flown her to the DR and took her immediately to a doctor and did it cheaper than that. The DR has a gold mine opportunity if they could just get it together. Fly patients first class to the DR, person picks them up in a Lincoln Town Car, takes them to nice hotel, picks them up next morning, takes them to get treatment or operation or whatever, when time...back to hotel to rest and feast for three or four days....maybe some beach time or pool time. Go to airport, first class back home. This could be a serious industry.

How prevalent is this type of service in the DR?

just for contrast... I spent two nights in the very top floor of Clinic Abreu, huge private room with bath,fridge, ac, lock box, hot and cold running nurses and interns, ekg, complete blood work, chest xray, deep vein doppler, medication, 4 doctors visits ........ cost $900.

(actually, I was cleared to leave after the first night but just asked if I could stay since the AC was being installed in the apartment and IT WAS SUCH a great rest!!!)
 

Hillbilly

Moderator
Jan 1, 2002
18,948
514
113
Snuffy! Good to see you. Send me a PM on how things are going in the US of A...

HB
 

Ken

Platinum
Jan 1, 2002
13,884
495
83
To attract medical tourists is one of the major goals of the new HOMS hospital in Santiago.
 

dv8

Gold
Sep 27, 2006
31,266
363
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Took daughter to Emergency Room here in USA.

i thought that emergency room is for, you know, emergencies, like? you can hardly fly folks to DR when they feel bad.
plastic surgery trips is another story thou. lots of folks coming here to have some work done on the cheap...
 
May 5, 2007
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I hope you jest

I have to assume your Daughter had either a severe injury or life threatening situation if you took her to an Emergency room (Using an ER for anything else is what drives up the cost of the ER) So booking a flight and flying tot he DR would have been an option?

I'm hoping your daughter survived thanks to the treatment she received for her "Emergency" medical needs


Took daughter to Emergency Room here in USA. A doctors intern looked at her. Spent all of five minutes with her. No test were done. Cost $1500. I have insurance. But that is an insane amount of money for that service. @Hello Rob@. I could have flown her to the DR and took her immediately to a doctor and did it cheaper than that. The DR has a gold mine opportunity if they could just get it together. Fly patients first class to the DR, person picks them up in a Lincoln Town Car, takes them to nice hotel, picks them up next morning, takes them to get treatment or operation or whatever, when time...back to hotel to rest and feast for three or four days....maybe some beach time or pool time. Go to airport, first class back home. This could be a serious industry.

How prevalent is this type of service in the DR?
 

Eddy

Silver
Jan 1, 2002
3,668
219
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The USA is probably the worst or the most expensive country in the world to get sick in. You get better service in Asian countries and even the DR.The day your government clamps down on those STUPID law suits maybe it will be cheaper and better. Half of your doctor’s bill goes to paying for insurance
 

Chirimoya

Well-known member
Dec 9, 2002
17,850
982
113
Please resist the temptation to discuss the US health system so that the thread remains on topic - health tourism in the DR for people from the US - and elsewhere for that matter. :)
 

Eddy

Silver
Jan 1, 2002
3,668
219
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Please resist the temptation to discuss the US health system so that the thread remains on topic - health tourism in the DR for people from the US - and elsewhere for that matter. :)
Sorry Chiri. What I'm trying to say is that I prefer the DR medical service over the US and Canada, Here, you see your doctor, get all the tests without having to wait forever and spending a fortune.
 

Snuffy

Bronze
May 3, 2002
1,462
6
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Well, I guess I will be nice...and explain...

Yes, the emergency room is for what is "perceived" to possibly need immediate attention. Since I am not a doctor, I could only do my best in determining her need to be seen by emergency personnel. After slipping and slamming her pelvis into the side of a swimming pool she was bleeding from what appeared to be an internal location. After my wife, myself, and several female friends took a look at her, and after 30 minutes of continuous bleeding...we determined to take her to emergency. It happened that in the fall she had did a "split" and opened up an old scar from the DR doctors cutting her open as a child. I don't if you know of this procedure, but it is sometimes necessary with female babies. So the damage was not life threatening but how would we know that? Were we to let her bleed all night?

Anyway, I was just asking a question about medical tourism in the DR. We always talk about how close to the USA the DR is. It would seem an obvious option. I was trying to point out how that, if done correctly, this could expand far beyond plastic surgery and be very good for the country. Although I am no longer there I do have a concern for the people.

Sometimes it is necessary to discuss other countries as a point of comparison to the DR. I miss the days of paying 500 pesos to see a doctor. Receiving a bill for $1500 and realizing that if the insurance doesn't pay it, I am responsible, is sobering to say the least.

And so you can appreciate that about the country you call home.