Hip Replacement Surgery Outside USA
Posted , 11 users are following.
Greetings All,
Newly registered here and seeking all the information I can find regarding Total Hip Replacement Surgery. I am 62 in June of this year and in mostly good health other than the bum hip- osteo arthritis so the prognosis seems inevitable. Guess what 40 years of physical labor, over exertion and all the various injuries that come with the territory will add up to. Currenty in PT 2X weekly, with weekly deep tissue work for the past two weeks have at least gotten me ambulatory and reduces pain and most symptoms to the bearable but the plans for tramping around in foriegn locales during retirement are shot unless I get this fihured out. Self employed most of my working life, only health insurance I ever had was a gym membership that I used so the costs of the surgery are an element I can't ignore. My best option seems to be to find the surgery out of my native USA and I would be most gratefull to hear of anyones experience, opinions, advise or comments for this. If there is a specific thread on this discussion your direction to find it also welcome. Search function didn't get me there.
Best to All,
Jimbone
0 likes, 18 replies
GoneFishing jimbone
Posted
Welcome to the club. I am a relative newbie myself just 3 weeks post op. And if you are a Gemini we appear to be the exact same age.
I could not be happier to have had this surgery which at the first of the year was not even a dot on my radar. What a difference a day makes LOL
Sending you a private message as well
Best of luck
kaura jimbone
Posted
I am in Canada so my upcoming surgery will not cost me a dime. I do, however know of a clinic in Quebec, Canada called the Duval clinic, they do the hip replacements outside of our health insurance, check it out it might be cheaper than in the States. Good luck
jimbone kaura
Posted
Kaura,
Why the USA can't follow the shining Canadian example of universal health care is beyond me. Well, not really beyond me but not the correct forum for the discussion maybe. I'll give Canada a looksee. Quebec is a beautiful provence to visit.
kimberley38758 jimbone
Posted
It's all about the American Dollar. Money talks in the political realm. Obama tried to slap together a policy, but that was an absolute failure! My taxes almost doubled by the time he left office due to the extra money being thrown at Obama Care. In the meantime, my adult children who were making minimum wage did not qualify for any help at all. Actually, I take that back. They brought home about $250 per week and would have been charged $75 per week on Obama Care. Now tell me how they are supposed to survive on what was left? Needless to say, they couldn't afford to pay for it. I'd love to find out how Britain and Canada do it.... and it seems to work!
michael11283 kimberley38758
Posted
Kimberley
Although we do have universal healthcare and in the main it is very good. We have long waiting lists for non-urgent operations like hips and the system is terribly short of cash because we're all getting older and need more care. How to fund healthcare and in particular the care of old people is a hot political topic here at the moment.
Mike
kimberley38758 michael11283
Posted
Hi Mike,
Thanks for putting everything into perspective. I'm English/American - born in Oxford and lived in England for the first half of my life. I remember the healthcare always being there for us in need and my parents never had to worry about us not having the money to pay for healthcare. That was when we were younger and only needed hospital care in emergency situations. I can imagine that the cost of elderly care has become a huge financial burden with all the baby boomers getting up in age. Its the same here. Medicare (health insurance paid by the tax payers for people over 63) is struggling to cover the costs of our elderly people.
lyn1951 jimbone
Posted
jimbone lyn1951
Posted
Lyn,
I like that suggestion and you are right regarding the Cuban health care system. I have freinds who visited there last year and reported back on a wound care protocol for diabetic complications that no one else seems to have. Don't know if Cuba has embraced medical tourism yet but defineitely worth checking out. Besides wanting to visit there for some time, it might be the perfect place to go through the recovery process. Nothing like warm tropical breezes to encourage getting well. There is an international organization that qualifies hospitals for joint replacement [techniques, hardware, sterility] but don't know if they have accredited Cuba. Need to find out.
beth2509 jimbone
Posted
I don't know the circumstances for this specific surgery, although I'd guess they do - but I do know that Cuba definitely arranges medical tourism. Your bigger issue might be going there as U.S. citizens are still not allowed to go! By the U.S. of course - the Cubans will let you in! I have visited Cuba several times, and happened to fall ill - nothing serious, but nasty enough. And the treatment was superb, and there were people from many countries in the hospital doing exactly what you suggest. Cuba has a first class health system, and a number of treatments for things we can't treat as effectively.
The other place to consider, and I know a few people who have done this, is India. The country supplies half our doctors anyway! They are well geared up for medical tourism, and if you wanted to recover there, living costs are dirt cheap. Your government also won't get their knickers in a twist over going to India.
renee01952 jimbone
Posted
Great suggestions !!! hopefully you will be succesfull in your search ...
keep in touch okay?
big warm hug
renee
michael11283 jimbone
Posted
Jimbone
I'm in the UK where we do have universal healthcare. I have heard of people going to Hungary for dental and cosmetic work so I tried a google search for "hip replacement cost in hungary" and that came up with links to hip replacement in various countries. Private hip replacemt at the Nuffield in Oxford, where mine was done, is about £12,000, Hungary is much cheaper. But it's a long way to come and you'd need to stay for a while before flying back to the USA which would add to the cost.
Mike
steve86482 jimbone
Posted
You can get health coverage in the US. You get Medicare in 3 years. Universal health like the U.K and Canada? No thanks 🙏. I like seeing my doctors and getting treated when I need to, not go on some list and wait or be turned down. You want cheap? Try Cambodia, Laos or India or get a cheap plan with a high deductible
kaura steve86482
Posted
HI Steve, I think you have fallen to the negative provaganda about Canada's healthcare system. I have not been on a list for month and months, I am to have my surgery May 24 and all will be covered from doctors to hospital stay and physio. I see my GP (whom I chose) whenever I want. BTW I have worked all my life in the health care community and very seldom have I see problems with coverage for people. The cost is shared (through taxes) by employer and emploee if you work and if you don't work well it just comes out of the "pool" nobody pays for healthcare. We do, however pay for dentist and some of the medicine cost. I think it is a good program, of course there is room for improvement, but all in all it is a good and efficient system.
steve86482 kaura
Posted
Laura, I have relative in Toronto that have passed away waiting for medical help from cancer and heart. There is no perfect system, but I am not a fan of socialized medicine. After being a member here for a bit over a year, the most wait and problems after surgery seem to be in the U.K. AND Canada. Now I know problems happen everywhere regardless. I am glad you like socialized medicine. I just don't. Have a great day
steve86482
Posted
kimberley38758 steve86482
Posted
Hi Steve,
I completely respect your views on socialized medicine. It's like you said, there is no perfect system. I'm really not sure what the answer is, but I can tell you that there needs to be something more we can do to help the middle-poor working class and the elderly.
A good friend of mine worked as a nurse all her life. Then she got very sick with cancer. As soon as she lost her job, she no longer had healthcare. There are cancer treatment centers all over the US, but you must have some way of paying. She had always lived a modest life and didnt' have any savings. At just 47 years old she passed away 6 months later in a lot of pain.
Then there is our office cleaner. She works 3 jobs to make ends meet. None of those jobs offer medical insurance. She hobbles around each day in excrutiating pain from sciatica. Barely able to walk, she pushes through to put food on her table and roof over her head. Meanwhile, my job offers medical insurance and I can go to see any specialist anytime I want. There has to be something more we can do for people like these. We don't live in a 3rd world country.