More American patients seek treatment abroad to escape high medical costs

October 31, 2011 · Posted in cholesterol · Comment 
Tom Ramstack – AHN News Legal Correspondent

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The number of Americans heading abroad for medical care rose sharply last year amid high health care costs and a poor economy in the United States, according to medical tourism industry figures.

Some of their preferred locations for life-saving surgeries and other procedures are India and Mexico, the health information company Health Digital Systems reported.

Surgeries like hip replacements, dental implants and heart bypasses can cost half as much in Southeast Asia and Latin America compared with the United States.

Among the six million Americans who traveled abroad for medical care last year, 45 percent traveled to Asia, 26 percent to Latin America and 2 percent to the Middle East, according to industry statistics.

Health care officials in the countries treating foreigners are upbeat about their patients. Medical tourism, primarily from the United States and Europe, represents a nearly $100 billion a year industry.

Mexico’s Health Ministry recently produced a report saying “the globalization of health services can offer excellent medical care at lower costs than developed countries.”

The health ministry has developed a strategic plan to encourage medical tourism by continuing “the effort to improve the perception of public safety and promote [Mexico's] image as a global capital of culture and entertainment.”

Any success by Mexico’s health providers in reaching American patients is most obvious in border cities like Monterrey, Tijuana and Chihuahua, according to the Health Digital Systems. Pharmacies, hospitals and medical specialty practices have sprung up to take care of them.

However, patients also assume risks by trusting their health care to foreign medical standards.

Only 2 percent of Mexico’s hospitals have earned “Joint International Commission” certification.

The certification means a hospital and its staff have met international standards that would allow them to be reimbursed by foreign medical insurance companies.

India’s medical tourism industry is losing patients to competing hospitals in Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia amid concerns about poor sanitation.

Indian hospitals have been struggling with a “superbug” that is resistant to disinfectant.

As a result, some patients are reporting they become sick when they enter Indian hospitals for other treatments.

Nevertheless, the discount price of foreign medical treatment is creating a backlog of patients for hospitals with good reputations.

Mediescape, an Indian medical tourism company, reports that India’s hospitals offering medical services to patients from the United States and Europe say their booked up to December.

Between 15 percent and 20 percent of India’s hospital income now comes from medical tourism, according to industry data.

There were 800,000 foreign patients in India last year. They are expected to generate a $3 billion a year industry for India by 2015, up by more than a third from 2010.

Behind the figures on rising medical tourism is the desperation of patients who cannot afford health care in the United States, where about 40 percent of the population lacks adequate medical insurance, according to U.S. government statistics.

Some Americans are even treating themselves for serious ailments, not always with successful outcomes, according to a recent survey by TMD Limited, a medical tourism company.

“Today we are seeing many breast cancer patients that self-treated for years,” said Antonio Jimenez, a doctor raised in New Jersey who now runs the Hope4Cancer Institute in Mexico’s Baja California. “Unfortunately, cancer treatment is not a do-it-yourself project.”

Many of the women search for treatments on the Internet.

“We see more and more women who have spent thousands of dollars on supplements and wonder cures they used at home,” Jimenez said. “When those treatments fail, they look for a clinic that can help.”

The American Cancer Society reports that 230,480 American women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year. Of those, 39,520 will die.

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Call for new Myanmar government to boost health spending

April 6, 2011 · Posted in high blood pressure and cholesterol · Comment 
X IRIN – IRIN IRIN Staff

YANGON, Myanmar (IRIN) – With a new government recently sworn in, a former Myanmar health official is calling on leaders to invest more in healthcare for the country’s poorest.

“Our country is sorely in need of a health insurance programme. The government should introduce a health insurance programme like the 30 Baht scheme that Thailand adopted for poor households,” said Aung Tun Thet, former Health Ministry director-general of planning and statistics and secretary of the inter-ministerial National Health Committee from’89-1992.

In 2001, Thailand introduced a universal coverage scheme to improve healthcare access for its poorest citizens. Low-income patients are charged 30 Baht (approximately US$1) per medical consultation. The service is free for those younger than 12, over 60, and the very poor.

Though there is no national health insurance in Myanmar, all public hospitals offer a medical cost-sharing plan – first introduced in’93 – where patients cover medicine and laboratory fees and the state pays doctors’ fees.

Soldiers in military hospitals are exempt from paying for medicine or lab tests, and tuberculosis patients are not required to pay for drugs at a public hospital.

Cost-sharing

According to state media, Health Minister Kyaw Myint recently rejected a proposal by opposition parliamentarians to boost coverage for the poor, stating that the existing cost-sharing system was sufficient.

But for Ma Oo*, mother of a nine-month-old child, medical and lab fees were unaffordable on her husband’s income as a rickshaw and bicycle repairman in the economic capital, Yangon, when their baby needed an emergency operation.

“When doctors and nurses told me I had to buy medicine for the operation, I felt so sad and helpless because I could not afford it.” She said nurses “scolded” her for not having the money. After realizing the child would not get the life-saving operation otherwise, Ma Oo said the medical staff asked her to sign a letter testifying her family could not afford the medication to justify not paying for drugs.

Aung Tun Thet said these ad-hoc arranagements offered some hope to poor patients. “There are some healthcare providers that give free healthcare to poor people so the poor can get treatment even if they cannot afford medical fees.”

A new medical graduate who preferred anonymity confirmed that hospitals could not “deny any patient”.

Instead, hospitals ask patients who can afford to do so to purchase extra medication, and even medical supplies such as syringes, to donate to the poor. A doctor working in central Myanmar who gave his name as Htway said this stock is then distributed. “We health workers always check the [leftover] drugs donated by some patients to find out whether they are still valid.”

Myanmar had the world’s 44th highest rate of child mortality in 2009, with an estimated 71 children dying before their fifth birthdays out of every 1,000 live births.

While government data show an estimated 66 percent of children in this age group with suspected pneumonia infections – a leading childhood killer – were taken to a health facility from 2005-2009, there is no record how many of them received antibiotics.

Stop-gap measures

A technical officer and health financing specialist at the UN World Health Organization (WHO), Riku Eloviano, said community-based health insurance plans – such as higher-income patients subsidizing care for poorer patients – “have had some positive impact in making access to care and medicines more affordable for people… They [community health insurance schemes] provide a formal expression of solidarity where [the] rich can subsidize the poor and the healthy can subsidize those who are sick.”

However, she said: “These schemes often… cover only a relatively small number of the population, which means that the resources gathered through member contributions are low, which in turn hampers the ability of these schemes to act as an effective risk protection mechanism… They are often not financially viable as a long-term solution.”

Rather, the government should boost medical spending to ensure everyone from “hawkers to farmers” could afford care, suggested Aung Tun Thet. “Hopefully a new government will consider investing more in the health sector.”

Of WHO member countries that supplied information in 2007, Myanmar devoted the lowest percentage of its GDP to healthcare, about 1.9 percent. But this was still an increase over previous spending, according to government records .

[CORRECTION: Due a local currency devaluation, the original article wrongly stated the US dollar value of government health spending in 2008/9. ]

Health administration and insurance accounted for 4 percent of total spending in 2009.

*Not her real name

pt/tt/mw

– Provided by Integrated Regional Information Networks.

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The Consequences OF Irresponsible Weight Loss?

December 11, 2010 · Posted in diets to lower cholesterol · Comment 

Constantly confronted by the near-skeletal models gracing the glossy pages of supermarket tabloids, it is little wonder that today’s young, and eve not-so-young, women are falling into the trap of irresponsible weight loss. And while pleas for health, responsibility, and the feminist perspective (all valid in their own right) fall too often on unresponsive ears, perhaps a different approach is necessary. Confronting girls and women with the concrete consequences of dangerous diets, diet pills, and eating disorders may be the required shock tactic to cease self-destructive patterns. There is little need for exaggeration when considering these consequences, not the least of which is the loss of the beauty these women are striving to emulate. While the thin models look great, it takes a load of makeup artists and airbrush experts to make them appear that way. Unhealthy weight loss, when it reaches a dangerous level, results in pale, gray skin, sunken faces, and even hair loss. Bald is not beautiful. More seriously, maintaining a BMI of less than sixteen can cause unpleasant bodily effects. Many super-thin girls find it difficult to stand for long periods or even go up the stairs. They often report severe insomnia which prevents clear thinking. And because of a lack of healthy fat, they are constantly cold even at normal temperatures. Some of this is a result of failed circulation. Further, and less spoken of, extremely low body weights can result in a loss of bladder and bowel control. This is far from sexy. Feeding tubes aren’t sexy either.

Drastic measures are impossible to avoid when a woman’s health declines to the point of death. While this might call up images of the walking skeleton stuck in a sterile clinic, there are life-threatening conditions that can result much earlier in a course of unhealthy weight loss. Malnutrition can result from insufficient food intake, and judgment too is impaired fairly quickly. Diet pills, especially those imported from unregulated overseas markets, can put stress on the vital organs. Girls have died in Japan, Thailand, and even the United States because of the tax they put on their livers and hearts. Just as dangerous are the behaviors associated with bulimia which complicates the work of the heart. Taking ipecac can result in a heart attack, even on the first attempt. These are real consequences. Unfortunately, our society has made being a size six out to be an awful alternative. Ultimately, the female form needs to be reclaimed, a healthy curve (or at least a little flesh) needs to be restated as the normal, but this may be a long way off.

For the moment, the revelation of these unpleasant consequences of unhealthy weight loss need to be put before the same women who see those staged magazine covers. There are variety of diets are suitable to an individual according to one’s personality, physical structure, obesity, hereditary diseases, physical illness, environmental weather etc,. But a common thing you have compulsory follow is, you have to make sure that all your regular diets are based with essential nutrients and minerals for good health and immunity. Usually in vegetarian, eating all kind of foods from all groups according to our seasonal availability is the best rule for your healthy diet. At the same time, the quantity of food you take on regular basis should be less than your quantity of diligence or hard physical work always. In your daily in taking, protein must be rich and minimum fifty grams of protein you have to consume in your daily routine diet as an average quality from your adolescent period. If your muscle tissues should not be broken even for silly reasons, you have to take protein enriched food regularly. In order to avoid unwanted physical fatigue, and fluid imbalances, you have to consume carbohydrates at least one hundred grams per day. Adequate fiber in your regular food will help for proper bowel functions and it will completely avoid constipation which is a major thing for all sorts of ailments.

Cholesterol is one of the major cause for heart attack and you have to avoid cholesterol enriched foods and more than twenty five to thirty milligram cholesterol; is the best quantity in your daily diet. The practice of following any kind of diet plans from outside is more hassle than your own diet plans according to your health condition and needs. You have to avoid all junk foods and follow to take nutritional items for your well healthy physique and to maintain lower body weight. Diet for 50%, water for 25% and 25% empty stomach is the best principle for your good health. Instead of eating three times in full stomach, taking six to seven times light food and refreshment is the best idea

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5 Foods to Boost Good Cholesterol

December 2, 2009 · Posted in good cholesterol food · Comment 

This article lists 5 basic foods that can potentially boost your good cholesterol levels. These foods are inexpensive and can be found at any local grocery store.

HDL stands for high density lipoproteins and is often referred to as “good” cholesterol. These proteins transport cholesterol in the blood. If your levels are too high, your risk of heart disease decreases, and likewise, if your levels are low, you risk increases.

There are certain foods that can have a positive effect on your HDL levels. Dark chocolate, salmon, berries, eggs and whole grains are five food items that can help you boost your good cholesterol levels.

A study conducted at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, suggests that eating dark chocolate (the gourmet kind that is 70% cacao) can raise your HDL levels significantly. Eating small daily doses (1/2 ounce) over an extended period of time should help raise your good cholesterol.

According to a Loma Linda University study in California, high density lipoprotein levels rose 4 percent in people who ate two 4-ounce servings of salmon a week for four weeks. Researchers also say that eating other fatty fish, such as, mackerel, herring and sardines should deliver similar benefits. Read more

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