Books to curl up with: a librarian's musings

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Medical tourist

The cost of health care drives the lives of so many Americans and ruins the lives of many more. Howard Staab is no different. As a self employeed contractor, he was uninsured. And he earned too much to get apply for medicare. So when he needed heart valve surgery costing $200,000 with a $50,000 down payment day of, what was he to do?

Maggi Ann Grace, his girlfriend, and he investigate the idea of going abroad to India for the surgery. The total cost of traveling to India for the same surgery was $10,000. The surgeon doing the surgery at the private hospital was trained in America with many of the specialist, who would have done the surgery here.

This is a fascinating look at medical tourism and Maggi's experience of dealing with health issues in another country and her experience of India. I highly recommend this short memoir State of the Heart by Grace.