Medical Tourism a boon for Patients
For many procedures, it’s often more expensive to receive treatment at home than it is to purchase a plane ticket, book a hotel, and pay for all medical expenses out of pocket in a foreign country.
Imagine a patient of acute mitral-valve prolapse that required surgery for which the Estimated fees at the nearest hospital approached $200,000, half of which needed to be paid in advance with little bit of research he decided to fly to another country and the procedure performed for less than $7,000.
Another example of a retired person needed to undergo coronary bypass, costing almost $80,000 in the United States land up in India which cost him less than $7000.
A middle age lady in UK, wanted have better body to boost her confidence, required to go for Gastric bypass the cost came to 65,000 pounds she found easy to go to India and do it for 9000 pounds.
So on and on thousands and millions of stories and experiences of the people who have experienced medical tourism. While the government, insurance companies, medical tourism facilitators, tour operators and hospitals are gaming to encash this opportunity to get their share, one must look this opportunity from the patient's perspective rather than highlighting the growth of the industry.
Medical Tourism is offering the global medical tourist the opportunity to get the best quality of medical treatment at significantly lower costs. For many procedures, Medical tourists find that the cost of their treatment (including the return airfare, rejuvenation/recuperative holiday and accommodation) leaves them with a total bill substantially less than they would have spent just on having the procedure in their countries. Gone are the days when many agencies as well few media used to criticize medical tourism. Now patients are opting to go abroad for cheaper deals, like hip replacements, dentistry and infertility treatment.
Why spend $160,000 on heart valve replacement surgery in Boston when the same procedure costs as little as $8,000 in India or a $43,000 hip replacement in New York when it can be done in India for about $9,000? The obvious question is why pay exorbitant prices at home when you can travel abroad and receive the same treatment from a fully certified medical facility for a fraction of the price? A lot of people could be one research away from having to put a second mortgage on their homes to pay for an expensive treatment.
And the answer is Medical Tourism. As long as you are healthy enough to travel, you stand to benefit from medical tourism’s offerings. Patients frequently also take advantage of the opportunity to vacation and tour inexpensively in the foreign country while they are visiting for health care. If you fall any of the following category, you are a good prospect to take advantage.
Medical Tourism for Elective surgery.
Medical Tourism for Underinsured.
Medical Tourism for Uninsured.
Medical Tourism for Others(IVF, Surrogacy etc).
Look at this from a innocent patient's perspective, Patients from developed countries can find comparable treatment abroad at a discount of as much as 80%. And it is becoming even more attractive as more industry players tie up with travel agents to provide a complete package.
The message… it's time for medical tourism providers, hospitals and insurance agencies to start actively encouraging patients to consider Medical Tourism for their medical and surgical treatments which is costing exorbitantly in their home country. This way or the other the service provider is going to be benefitted however the basic encouragement has to be from patient's view point.
In short Medical Tourism sector is here to stay for long. Negative reviews would keep on pushing few medical tourism aspirants away from the concept however Prime Consultancy and other healthcare providers should take a responsibility to reach out to maximum considering Medical Tourism as a noble profession.
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