Maybe not much, but it got us thinking. There has been some buzz lately about medical tourism funneling revenues away from US hospitals to overseas providers that offer popular procedures at lower cost.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that up to 750,000 US residents travel abroad to get care each year, while other sources put the number at closer to a million. The most common procedures sought by US residents in other countries include cosmetic surgery, dentistry, and heart surgery. The impetus for this mini-exodus is the hunt for cheaper medical procedures.