Thu, 21 Oct 2004

Professional Offshoring

Secular Blasphemy has a link this morning to this article from the Washington Post on folks from the US taking a trip to India for cheaper medical care.

Reading this, I remembered reading a similar piece from the BBC some months ago, and, like Jan, I gotta wonder when it's gonna catch on big with the insurance companies.

Once it does you can bet there'll be a law passed prohibiting insurance companies from paying for overseas procedures, which will, of course, be impossible to really enforce, but which will be rammed thru Congress by the AMA and other powerful lobbies. Just like lawyer's can't be offshored thanks to the bar associations.

I would oppose such legislation bitterly, and in fact have fired off a letter to my local US representative urging the government to allow foreign lawyers to dispense legal advice in the US, as long as they can pass the same bar exam that US lawyers have to pass, regardless of physical location. I'm taking this position on the grounds that "what's good for the goose is good for the gander". If the auto workers, programmers and other working stiffs have to compete in the new "global economy", then I see no reason why the upper-crust of American professions shouldn't have to do so as well.

Of course, I do have an ulterior motive. If offshoring "professionals" is ever actually allowed, you will suddenly see both major parties rushing to repeal all so-called "free trade" legislation, their campaign coffers swollen by soon to be offshored doctors, lawyers and CEO's. And perhaps, just perhaps, that will stimulate a discussion of fair trade, benefitting all of us.

But I'm not gonna hold my breath. And I am gonna keep feeding my chickens.

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