Here's an excerpt from one of the many, many websites featuring "medical tourism"...

The majority of foreign doctors trained in the US or Western Europe are under various foreign government programs that require they return at the completion of their education and serve the public for a period of several years; approximately 8-12 years in Thailand, for example. Most stay after their indentured labor expires, however, both for the desire to stay in their home country and because apart from the monetary incentive, being a physician in the United States is not a particularly enticing position. By staying in their home country, these physicians will receive far more respect for their position than they would in the United States, work fewer hours with less stress, and not have to worry about the frivolous litigation that plagues US doctors. Further, while by US standards they are paid less, by local standards they are very well to do and their lifestyles are as comfortable in their native countries as they would be in the US.

Interestingly, several of the websites indicate that U.S. insurance companies will indeed pay for medical and dental procedures performed in foreign hospitals. In fact, one article said they are "thrilled" to do so because of the lesser expense to them. They forewarn that the biggest problem is for the patient to obtain the proper documentation from the foreign hospital to document their claim. Several foreign hospitals have begun to offer the same insurance claim filing services as are available in the U.S. Some are much farther ahead in this regard than others. Bumrungrad Hospital in Thailand is widely noted as one of the most frequently used hospital by foreign medical tourists. They admitted over 400,000 foreign patients in 2008. They are reported to be at the forefront of seamlessly providing patients from all countries both superior medical care as well as interfacing with insurers worldwide. Bumrungrad has over 900 doctors on it's staff, with 200 of them being U.S. board certified. Bumrungrad is noted worldwide for being possibly the most technologically advanced hospital in the world, both in diagnostic and surgical facilities and also in patient-centered information technology.

Check out the website on Bumrungrad Hospital... http://www.bumrungrad.com/

Bumrungrad provides a slick webpage to estimate the cost of various procedures commonly provided at the hospital. That website is at...http://www.bumrungrad.com/realcost/index.aspx

I looked up a few surgical procedures that some of us might be familiar with. One needs to review exactly what's included in these costs, but I found that the actual period of hospitalization is much longer than is commonly paid for by Medicare or U.S. insurance companies. As an example, in the U.S. patients are typically discharged after three days after a total hip replacement. At Bumrungrad in Thailand, the hospital stay is typically 6-7 days. Some of the costs that we might be familiar with are as follows. These numbers include the total cost of the procedure, hospital bill, doctor's fee and all supplies. These are median cost averages, with 50% of th the procedures costing more and 50% less than this amount...

• Total hip replacement $13,349
• Total knee replacement $10,959
• Colonoscopy $691
• Coronary Angiogram $2,275

I can tell you from personal experience as well as with family members, that these median costs are a fraction of what they are in the U.S. With a couple of the procedures noted above, the average costs are only 20-25% of the costs in big U.S. hospitals.

These comments relate mostly to the big hospital in Bangkok. But just a little research shows that the development of hospitals and medical facilities around the world designed to cater to foreign patients, particularly U.S. citizens, is extensive and growing rapidly.