Affordable Medical Tourism Solutions
Tuesday, January 6th, 2009
Reuters is reporting that Healthbase Online, a medical tourism facilitator, is engaged in a pilot program with Wellpoint to provide global health care coverage to Wellpoints members in Wisconsin. Healthbase’s involvement in the pilot involves setting up all the medical & travel logistics.
Under the Wellpoint program, members who choose to have non-emergency elective procedures performed overseas, such as joint replacement, will have access to Joint Commission International accredited HealthCare providers in India.
The program would save members thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket costs.
As previosuly reported here in this blog, studies conducted by UCLA medical school have shown that patients who have procedures down overseas have a much greeater chance of experiencing complications or post-op infections. Nonetheless there continues to be interest in the program in the name of saving money. We will see if similar programs proliferate among other health insurance carriers, subsequent to this pilot program.

Revamping the maligned US health care system was a focal point of President-elect Barack Obama’s campaign, and he will now be tasked with making good on that promise amid a significant economic downturn.
There have been several articles published within the last week, most notably in the New York Times regarding health insurance rates paid by women compared to rates paid by men. The article used health insurance quote data gathered from such health insurance companies as Humana, Aetna, and Wellpoint as well as 









