Medical Tourism Overseas
Medical tourism (also known as Health Tourism) the act of traveling abroad to obtain health care, has emerged in recent years as a major new
trend in the global health care industry, as residents of the United States, Canada, and Europe seek out affordable and high quality medical care
in Asia, Latin America, and Africa.
Factors that have led to the increasing popularity of medical travel include the high cost of health care, long wait times for certain
procedures, the ease and affordability of international travel, and improvements in both technology and standards of care in many countries.
Medical tourists can come from anywhere in the world, including Europe, the UK, Middle East, Japan, the United States, and Canada. This is
because of their large populations, comparatively high wealth, the high expense of health care or lack of health care options locally, and
increasingly high expectations of their populations with respect to health care.
A large draw to medical travel is convenience and speed. Countries that operate public health-care systems are often so taxed that it can take
considerable time to get non-urgent medical care. The time spent waiting for a procedure such as a hip replacement can be a year or more in
Britain and Canada; however, in Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Cuba, Colombia, Philippines or India, a patient could feasibly have an operation
the day after their arrival. In Canada, the number of procedures in 2005 for which people were waiting was 782,936.
Additionally, patients are finding that insurance either does not cover orthopedic surgery (such as knee/hip replacement) or imposes
unreasonable restrictions on the choice of the facility, surgeon, or prosthetics to be used. Medical tourism for knee/hip replacements has
emerged as one of the more widely accepted procedures because of the lower cost and minimal difficulties associated with the traveling to/from
the surgery. Colombia provides a knee replacement for about $5,000 USD, including all associated fees, such as FDA- approved prosthetics and
hospital stay-over expenses. However, many clinics quote prices that are not all inclusive and include only the surgeon fees associated with the
procedure.
According to an article by the University of Delaware publication, UDaily:
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The cost of surgery in India, Thailand or South Africa can be one-tenth of what it is in the United States or
Western Europe, and sometimes even less. A heart-valve replacement that would cost $200,000 or more in the U.S., for example,
goes for $10,000 in India--and that includes round-trip airfare and a brief vacation package. Similarly, a metal-free dental
bridge worth $5,500 in the U.S. costs $500 in India, a knee replacement in Thailand with six days of physical therapy costs about
one-fifth of what it would in the States, and Lasik eye surgery worth $3,700 in the U.S. is available in many other countries for
only $730. Cosmetic surgery savings are even greater: A full facelift that would cost $20,000 in the U.S. runs about $1,250 in
South Africa."
Medical tourists have good cause to seek out care beyond the United States for many reasons. In some regions of
the world, state-of-the-art medical facilities are hard to come by, if they exist at all; in other countries, the public
health-care system is so overburdened that it can take years to get needed care. In Britain and Canada, for instance, the waiting
period for a hip replacement can be a year or more, while in Bangkok or Bangalore, a patient can be in the operating room the
morning after getting off a plane.
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