Union Disrupts Plan to Send Ailing Workers to India for Cheaper Medical Care

It is no secret to American companies that prohibitive costs of providing healthcare to their employees eat into their profit margin: the consulting firm McKinsey and Company estimates that by 2008, top U.S. companies will be spending as much on health care as they made in profits, forcing the scaling back or eliminating of benefits. In response, some firms have begun considering employees abroad to countries such as India where medical treatments cost nearly 80 percent less than in the U.S. In one case the move has been blocked, however, by the United Steelworkers Union, which opposes the offering of incentives by employers to encourage workers to seek medical treatment overseas. As reasons the union cites issues of liability and the quality of care, as well as the possibility that healthcare jobs in America will be shipped overseas should there be an increase in the number of American patients abroad. Lower costs and globally standardized medical practices, though, will continue to make the globalization of health care an attractive solution to companies and individuals struggling to pay their medical costs. – YaleGlobal