X-Message-Number: 4851
From: 
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 1995 22:58:28 -0400
Subject: Third World Cryonics Business?

     Just as many other industries have moved production overseas to evade
U.S. taxes and regulations, there could be great opportunity for profit in
producing health care overseas. The U.S. has very high medical costs due to
FDA restrictions, medical guilds, tax policy and Medicare third-party
payments. This provides a niche for anyone who can figure out how to produce
any part of the medical needs of U.S. citizens overseas.
     I think the best niche is long-term care of the elderly. It eliminates
the problem of how to either smuggle treatments in to the U.S., or get sick
people to an out-of-country hospital. It also uses some of the relative
advantages of certain Third world locations.
     Imagine a resort or eco-tourist hotel in, let us say, rural Costa Rica
(specific site selection would depend on the political climate of a country,
which would need to be carefully researched; Costa Rica has several problems
with its tax structure from what I've read. I'm sure many cryonet readers
know more about this than I). Now, add a small medical facility, nursing
home, and a retirement community to the hotel. There is a synergy here with
the original hotel business; many people are afraid to go overseas because
they fear getting sick. The climate would be a natural for retirees, and the
labor costs would be lower than in the U.S. (According to my wife, an O.T.,
the single worst problem in nursing homes is that their low-level employees
neglect the patient's care).
     In the Third World, you have to pay bribes to operate any business. But
this can be an advantage, because it gives the bribees an interest in letting
you operate (unlike here). A nursing home in the Third World could give the
patients melatonin, DHEA, etc., without fear of lawsuits. You could serve
local fruits and meats instead of the American diet of flour & corn syrup.
And you could increase the quality of the staff, by paying relatively high
wages for the area. 
     Naturally, if successful, you would expand the hospital facility into a
full-fledged life-extension hospital. (Eventually, the logical extension
would be to add a cryonics facility for "post-nursing-home" care. I am not
suggesting that Alcor abandon Scotsdale, but it would be nice to have
functional cryonics facilities in more than one country).
     And if the idea totally flops, you still have resort real estate in one
of the world's disappearing wild areas. Unless socialism makes a comeback in
your selected country, you should be well positioned to profit from the 21st
century world's richer, yet more-crowded population.


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