The High Cost of Bargains

This past week the local paper ran an article about dental tourism. I’m not sure why it popped up just now as both medical and dental tourism have been around for quite a few years.

On the one hand it should come as no surprise to anyone living in the United States that, owing to the high cost of health care, people look for bargains. For those with the necessary resources, courage, and an underlying sense for adventure, medical/dental tourism makes sense. The cost of care in Mexico, Central and South America, India, China, and many other overseas destinations is a fraction of what one would pay in the U.S.

On the other hand it disappoints the hell out of me. In a region of the U.S. where complaints of job loss and outsourcing to foreign competition is always front and center, it is odd that anyone would look to medical/dental tourism as a clever option in controlling healthcare costs. It’s like plumbing: If you need a new fixture you can buy it online with free shipping for X dollars. You can purchase the same item for half again as much at a local bigbox store—one that employees the people you know and one that pays local taxes (maybe). Or, you can buy the same item at a locally owned store for 2 to 3 times the Internet price and know that you are not just buying hardware, you’re supporting a business that keeps its revenue—all of it—right here in your city and state. The price you pay at a locally owned store goes toward way more than the cost of a simple fixture.

Like Internet hardware, when one travels abroad for a medical or dental procedure you are likely to get quality work. After all, many of those practitioners may have come to the U.S. to receive their specialty training and often with the benefit of your tax supported facilities.  But it’s not just the local dentist who suffers when a patient goes abroad for treatment. Every member of that dentist’s staff, every patient that remains behind, and every member of the community supported by that practice’s revenue pays for the loss of that overseas patient. And, ultimately, we may find ourselves waxing nostalgic about the day when we had a local dentist, doctor, or other caregiver.

I guess if one truly supports the fiction of a “free market system,” than we can all agree the best deal is the lowest price. Just be prepared, though, to live with the consequences of your bargain shopping as you find your choices dwindle and convenience disappears at just about the same rate as local jobs: Nobody can find a good job but, man, what bargains!