Bending the Third Rail
Because We Should, We Can, We Do
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Outsourcing Healthcare
Up until now outsourcing affected primarily blue collar workers in America. That is changing.

ATLANTA – Carl Garrett, a paper-mill technician in Leicester, N.C., is scheduled to travel Sept. 2 to New Delhi, where he will undergo two operations. Though American individuals have gone abroad for cheaper operations, Mr. Garrett is a pioneer of sorts.

He is a test case for his company, Blue Ridge Paper Products, Inc., in North Carolina, which is set to provide a health benefit plan that allows its employees and their dependents to obtain medical care overseas beginning in 2007.

Garrett's medical care alone may save the company $50,000. And instead of winding up $20,000 in debt to have the operations in the US, he may now get up to $10,000 back as a share of the savings. He'll also get to see the Taj Mahal as part of a two-day tour before the surgery.

His two operations could cost $100,000 in the US; they'll run about $20,000 in India.

I'm wondering what this will do to doctors and hospitals here and also how hard it will be for Americans to get back into the country after their surgeries—especially the Americans who happen to have brown skin or "foreign" surnames.

Full story here.

Written at 9:31 AM by Lynne.
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