28 March 2009  Cost per unit delivered  CNN has an interesting
anecdote about medial tourism:  a woman traveling to India for
(I assume) a heart valve replacement, for about 5% the estimated
price of the same procedure performed in the US -- travel
included! "They [U.S. hospitals] told me it would be about
$175,000, and there was just no way could I come up with that,"
Giustina said. So, with a little digging online, she found
several high quality Granted, the quoted price is the inflated
price given to the uninsured -- the typical actual cost (or at
least the reimbursement) for an open-heart procedure is, I
think, closer to $40,000.   I am also assuming that this is an
open heart, though the lede confusingly refers to the procedure
as fixing "atrial fibrillation."  I can't think of any A-fib
treatment costing $175K, but leaky valves can lead to A-fib as a
consequence, so that's my guess.  On a related note, Ezra has a
disturbing anecdote of an involuntary medical tourist: Last
weekend, my best friend, an aid