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Richard Baker, founder of North American Surgery Inc. has been much in the news this year.  With healthcare being such a prominent subject in the various Presidential debates, the media has sought our insight into the issue. Mr. Baker has been interviewed by John Stossel on the ABC-TV program, “20/20”. He has also been interviewed on National Public Radio, by Jerry Agar on WABC-Newstalk radio, as well as by Anthony Vultaggio on KRLA Newstalk radio.In print, Mr. Baker’s company has been mentioned in an editorial in the Wall St. Journal.

North American Surgery was mentioned in an article on medical tourism published in the May 12th edition of U.S. News and World Report” The article states:

In a sign of market forces at work, a handful of American hospitals have struck deals with North American Surgery, a Canadian company formed last August to match U.S. hospitals in Kansas, Michigan, New York, Oklahoma, and Washington that are willing to provide certain procedures inexpensively with American patients who need them. Only travel and lodging are extra. Hip or knee replacement or heart-bypass surgery is $14,000; weight-loss surgery is $10,000 or $15,000. The service is free; the company is paid by the hospitals.

Agreeing to offer low prices is mostly what qualifies hospitals to make the list, says Richard Baker, the entrepreneur behind North American Surgery. He says he also makes use of HealthGrades.com, a service that gives hospitals one, three, or five stars for performance.

North American Surgery was featured in the most recent publication of “Patients Beyond Borders: Everybody’s Guide to Affordable, World-Class Medical Travel”. We are the only facilitator in the book who refers patients strictly within North America. Every other organization in the book deals only with international medical care.

North American Surgery was featured in the May, 2008 issue of U.S. News & World Report discussing Medical Tourism. We were able to show the readers that there are alternatives to traveling to third world countries for high quality, low cost surgery.

For the last four years, we have been sending our Canadian clients to facilities in the U.S. for timely medical care.  The socialized Canadian health care system is not able to meet the needs of Canadians and if the U.S. were to copy the Canadian system, there is no reason to expect any different results.  Simply put, no single-payer, monopolistic system has ever been able to deliver health care as effectively as the free market system.