Consider vs actually do
Stuff reports on an Ipsos poll saying that about 1 in 3 people across many countries would consider travelling for medical treatment (and 18% “definitely would consider”). For the USA, specifically, the figure was 38%.
The story also reports estimates of the actual number of people each year who travel from the USA for health reasons: 60 000 to 750 000. That sounds like a lot, but it’s actually 0.02%-0.25% of the US population, a bit of context that would have be useful in the story.
Thomas Lumley (@tslumley) is Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Auckland. His research interests include semiparametric models, survey sampling, statistical computing, foundations of statistics, and whatever methodological problems his medical collaborators come up with. He also blogs at Biased and Inefficient See all posts by Thomas Lumley »