Balding Blog
08-26-2009, 03:48 PM
Dear Dr. Rassman,
I really like this blog, and all the help you’ve given us, but I have a question (not a good one for you, I suppose). Why there are such exorbitant prices for hair transplants, making them available only for those rich guys?! Another question, which probably will make you think before answering the first: Do you think those diagnosted with leukemia, who need a marrow transplant, don’t have the right to live on because they don’t have 150.000 $ for the surgery?! Medicine shall not be business, but as we all see it is. Anyway, thank you for your time and I really hope in the future medicine will be as it should be, available for everyone! (just a teenager view)
Hair transplants are not just available to “rich guys”, but as you are a teenager with an interesting view on things, perhaps you consider anyone with a better-than-minimum wage job to be “rich”. Remember that hair transplantation is a completely elective procedure and not for everyone. If you buy a hair system and do the ordinary wig replacements and wig repairs, the cost will average $15,000/5 year time frame. Every 5 years the cycle continues. If you have a hair transplant, most people can get it for between $5,000 and $10,000. For me to do a hair transplant, I use a certified facility that is accredited (a process that is very expensive, but guarantees quality processes and sterility), I have a team of people working almost all day with the patient having the hair transplant, and I pay support staff, buy surgical supplies, and have rent, which is expensive. All of my staff are paid a decent living wage so that I can retain the best staff and they get medical coverage included in their employment. My overall costs are a fraction of what you would pay to have a surgical procedure performed on an outpatient basis in any hospital in the US (normally between $1000-2500 per hour) and our typical surgery runs 5-7 hours in length. And you’re always open to save a buck by using doctors who do not have my experience, many of them producing inferior results (or even worse (http://www.baldingblog.com/2007/04/27/death-during-hair-transplant-surgery/)).
By comparison, if you bring your dog into the veterinarian, the office visit often runs about $80, and blood work and any X-rays could run $1,000 or more. Your dog may not be cured in one visit, so repeat visits and repeat tests will drive up the costs further. He/she will probably get sick again another time. Another example: my son just had his timing belt replaced along with miscellaneous other things on his 11 year old Toyota car and it cost him around $2,500. I doubt it took a team of people 7 hours to do it. A good hair transplant, compared to a wig or a vet visit, is most often a one time cost that will probably not be repeated (if you take finasteride) in the lifetime of many people. Compare the value: a wig at $15,000 over 5 years or a hair transplant that will last your lifetime and will be less than the cost of a wig for 5 years. I think that comparing a bone marrow transplant is not appropriate here and your question about that is pretty ridiculous.
Tags: hair transplant (http://technorati.com/tag/hair+transplant), surgery (http://technorati.com/tag/surgery), price (http://technorati.com/tag/price), cost (http://technorati.com/tag/cost), hairloss (http://technorati.com/tag/hairloss), hair loss (http://technorati.com/tag/hair+loss), doctor (http://technorati.com/tag/doctor), physician (http://technorati.com/tag/physician)
More... (http://www.baldingblog.com/2009/08/26/why-is-surgery-so-expensive/)
I really like this blog, and all the help you’ve given us, but I have a question (not a good one for you, I suppose). Why there are such exorbitant prices for hair transplants, making them available only for those rich guys?! Another question, which probably will make you think before answering the first: Do you think those diagnosted with leukemia, who need a marrow transplant, don’t have the right to live on because they don’t have 150.000 $ for the surgery?! Medicine shall not be business, but as we all see it is. Anyway, thank you for your time and I really hope in the future medicine will be as it should be, available for everyone! (just a teenager view)
Hair transplants are not just available to “rich guys”, but as you are a teenager with an interesting view on things, perhaps you consider anyone with a better-than-minimum wage job to be “rich”. Remember that hair transplantation is a completely elective procedure and not for everyone. If you buy a hair system and do the ordinary wig replacements and wig repairs, the cost will average $15,000/5 year time frame. Every 5 years the cycle continues. If you have a hair transplant, most people can get it for between $5,000 and $10,000. For me to do a hair transplant, I use a certified facility that is accredited (a process that is very expensive, but guarantees quality processes and sterility), I have a team of people working almost all day with the patient having the hair transplant, and I pay support staff, buy surgical supplies, and have rent, which is expensive. All of my staff are paid a decent living wage so that I can retain the best staff and they get medical coverage included in their employment. My overall costs are a fraction of what you would pay to have a surgical procedure performed on an outpatient basis in any hospital in the US (normally between $1000-2500 per hour) and our typical surgery runs 5-7 hours in length. And you’re always open to save a buck by using doctors who do not have my experience, many of them producing inferior results (or even worse (http://www.baldingblog.com/2007/04/27/death-during-hair-transplant-surgery/)).
By comparison, if you bring your dog into the veterinarian, the office visit often runs about $80, and blood work and any X-rays could run $1,000 or more. Your dog may not be cured in one visit, so repeat visits and repeat tests will drive up the costs further. He/she will probably get sick again another time. Another example: my son just had his timing belt replaced along with miscellaneous other things on his 11 year old Toyota car and it cost him around $2,500. I doubt it took a team of people 7 hours to do it. A good hair transplant, compared to a wig or a vet visit, is most often a one time cost that will probably not be repeated (if you take finasteride) in the lifetime of many people. Compare the value: a wig at $15,000 over 5 years or a hair transplant that will last your lifetime and will be less than the cost of a wig for 5 years. I think that comparing a bone marrow transplant is not appropriate here and your question about that is pretty ridiculous.
Tags: hair transplant (http://technorati.com/tag/hair+transplant), surgery (http://technorati.com/tag/surgery), price (http://technorati.com/tag/price), cost (http://technorati.com/tag/cost), hairloss (http://technorati.com/tag/hairloss), hair loss (http://technorati.com/tag/hair+loss), doctor (http://technorati.com/tag/doctor), physician (http://technorati.com/tag/physician)
More... (http://www.baldingblog.com/2009/08/26/why-is-surgery-so-expensive/)