Should American health insurance companies start outsourcing medical care to off set the price monopoly?

If health insurance companies started paying for airplane tickets, how many nanoseconds do you think it would take for someone to start faking a medical condition in order to get a free trip to somewhere that they wanted to go on vacation? An emergency room should be used only for things that need immediate treatment and cannot wait long enough for the person to get from the U.S. to the Philippines. The airlines won't allow passengers to board an airplane during a medical emergency, because of the risk that the patient might not be able to wait until the plane reached its destination, and they might have to land the plane early to get the patient to a hospital wherever the plane was. Finally, you are wrong about the risk of doing nothing. A person in the U.S. without insurance is no more likely to die than a person in the U.S. with insurance. And there are probably more deaths in the U.S. from doing too much than from doing nothing.

An insurance company in one country cannot cover you in another. There are all kinds of rules and regulations and oversight that can only work inside the U.S. That is why your insurance is valid in your state because the jurisdiction over insurance is in each state. If you want to save money you have to travel to these countries and pay cash.

Not many people would put money before risk to their health whereas you apparently do. I have seen medical practices being carried out in hospitals in both Jamaica and Nigeria that are no longer carried out in hospitals in the developed world. Emphasis on "developed". Doctors have spent years studying hard for their qualifications. Their work is stressful due to the knowledge that they are morally and legally responsible for whether a patient lives or dies. They deserve a high salary much more than the CEO of a huge corporation. I am sure your idea to fill planes with sick people thereby denying Filipinos themselves of the opportunity to visit back home will be very popular. You might say put more planes on. You have no idea how much that would cost

Ain't gonna happen. People aren't going to risk running into drug-cartel based roadblocks to go to Mexico for unregulated, and sometimes unlicensed, medical practices that are years and years behind the state of the art medical practices in the USA. Minor stuff? Sure, go to Mexico. But even the President of Mexico comes to the USA for major medical care, which should tell you all you need to know, about medical care in Mexico. None of the world leaders, royalty, rich and famous, go to the Philippines or Mexico for their medical treatment. They come here, and pay extra for it. Sometimes, you really DO get what you pay for.

So, if I need an emergency room I should get on an airplane and head to the Philippines? When I need a painter or someone to do some landscaping, I might go for the lowest bidder. But, when it comes to my health I'm glad I live near Johns Hopkins. If I lived in Mexico, I'd probably hop a plane to head to the US for coverage. That's what rich Europeans do. If you needed heart surgery, would you want someone to do the surgery that does it 10 times a day, or would you prefer a guy that's done that procedure once or twice? If you want to contain costs, make doctors do what they do at Jiffy Lube. Have a board up in the waiting room with their prices listed on it. Medical care is pretty much the ONLY thing that you have no idea what it costs until after the fact.