More outsourcing of services to

More outsourcing of services to India

Here's another example of the outsourcing of services overseas:

"Three months ago, Howard Staab learned that he suffered from a life-threatening heart condition and would have to undergo surgery at a cost of up to $200,000 -- an impossible sum for the 53-year-old carpenter from Durham, N.C., who has no health insurance.

So he outsourced the job to India.

Taking his cue from cost-cutting U.S. businesses, Staab last month flew about 7,500 miles to the Indian capital, where doctors at the Escorts Heart Institute & Research Centre -- a sleek aluminum-colored building across the street from a bicycle-rickshaw stand -- replaced his balky heart valve with one harvested from a pig. Total bill: about $10,000, including round-trip airfare and a planned side trip to the Taj Mahal..."

See the rest of John Lancaster's article in the Washington Post, here: "Surgeries, Side Trips for 'Medical Tourists' "

This sort of openness to the world economy strikes me as a good thing, in this instance, as well as in data processing and call centers. This also suggests that openness to world trade in services can play an important role in guaranteeing broad social access to increasingly costly health care.