Medical Tourism Facts Explained

Medical Tourism

Medical tourism is the act of traveling to different countries for care and health services at affordable prices. Also known as the global healthcare and medical tourism and medical travel. Was established "medical tourism" this term by the media and travel agencies to promote this type of practice. Today, he grew up in the official medical tourism industry in over 50 countries.


Why the popular medical tourism?

So what exactly are the benefits of medical tourism, which make people to travel abroad for simple and complex medical procedures? The main factor that encourages medical travel and have no doubt that the high cost of health care in developed countries like the United States country. Most destinations offer travel medical surgery nearly a third of the cost in developed countries. This results in significant savings for the person to undergo a medical procedure such as a liver transplant, or perform cosmetic surgery.

Another reason is the high cost of health insurance in Western countries, which have led many people do not choose health plans. The high unemployment rate in the United States and other European countries is another important factor. Today, unemployment and deterioration due to a million people can not afford health insurance. Thus, a person who is not covered by health insurance has a very less privileged in the search for treatment options cheaper elsewhere. As a result, he gained rapid acceptance Medical Travel and popularity in a short period of time.

Cost comparison of medical tourism

Here are some comparisons of sudden costs that justify the existence of the medical tourism industry. Liver transplantation in the United States costs about $ 300,000 a huge, while the person who chooses to travel to Taiwan will end up paying about $ 90,000 only. This translates into a savings of about 70 percent. Similarly, replacing a heart valve costs about $ 10,000 in India, while it costs about $ 200,000 to the United States. Women undergoing complex cosmetic surgery has to spend a fortune in the United States in this case, the process of a complete facelift in South Africa costs about $ 1,250, compared with about $ 20,000 in the United States. These prices are glare cost reduction is the largest in the phenomenal growth of the medical tourism industry to

The advantages and disadvantages of medical tourism

Foreign medical travel is not only popular for saving money. There are many other advantages. For example, waiting times and medical procedures in the United Kingdom long and tedious. In addition, medical tourism, is scheduled for all patients and scheduled well in advance. Once the patient arrives in the host country, and there is little or no waiting time. Here is another example to illustrate this point. In Canada in 2005, more than 750,000 Canadians wait an average of 9.5 weeks to get medical procedures done. Canada also sets standards extend to expect everything from 16 to 26 weeks for elective medical procedures such as cataract surgery and hip.

While the medical travel sector has its advantages, it also has its share of problems and concerns. For example, a medical tourist can easily susceptible to many diseases in the host country, where they can not be high levels of hygiene are available. A person in the United States may have low levels with no natural immunity to these diseases. These diseases may hinder or complicate existing health conditions. Some diseases that might weaken or complicate the recovery person is amoebic dysentery, influenza, typhoid and tuberculosis. Health complications that can occur during the flight as a result of the overcrowding seats airlines and long-haul flights.

Even borrowers in countries such as India hospitals lacked adequate policies to file a complaint. This leads to a large number of patients to be fully satisfied with the services provided. There are also many legal and ethical issues related to organ transplantation in India and China. This is mainly due to the purchase of illegally on a wide range of tissues and organs in these countries it. Despite these shortcomings, it seems to be a medical travel and the way forward, unless it can be for countries like the United States reduce the cost of treatment significantly, or start offering insurance tourism medical.

Destinations of the popular medical tourism

Many people are looking for both simple and complex procedures such as cardiac surgery, hip and knee replacements and dental surgery and cosmetic surgery. These most popular tourist destinations is the medical action India, Argentina, Cuba, Hungary, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, the Philippines, Ukraine, Lithuania and Korea South. Available in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Costa Rica, Turkey and Colombia plastic surgery high quality at affordable prices. In recent years, has become a country in South America such as Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Bolivia and a warm hand to global plastic surgery. These countries have talented and experienced cosmetic surgeons famous. Most medical tourists from countries such as the USA, Canada, UK and Japan.

Effects on the health care sector

Travel medical effects that have been created in countries that have arisen. In 2007, asked more than 750,000 American health services abroad, and more than 1.5 million are expected to get health care in the sea in 2008 and this resulted in the healthcare industry to United States, it is losing billions of dollars, is expected to lose more in the future. According to Deloitte Consulting in 2008, and medical tourism in the United States will most likely increase by about 10 times over the next decade. This disturbing and difficult to be ignored by the healthcare sector trend. While this may be a problem for the industry of health insurance, but it can also be a catalyst for the sector of health care to reduce the premiums to maintain their competitiveness. This radical change towards medical tourism has opened the doors of a medical tourism safely. Currently, very few insurance companies cover medical tourism. However, there is a growing demand for insurance and medical tourism could soon see major insurance health care providers that offer people the opportunity to travel abroad. This will certainly be an important factor for health care more affordable step.

Monitoring Best Practices

To ensure better quality of care that a growing number of international organizations for the adoption of health care is now supported international hospitals. And this accreditation is granted on the basis of the level of health services and quality of medical procedures that are provided. Since 1999, the Joint Commission International (JCI), a non-profit organization based in the United States is authorized to authenticate and adoption of hospitals and medical centers abroad. Providers of medical tourism in many countries are seeking to rely on to stay on track with the standards of good hygiene practices and gain the patient's trust and confidence.

Medical tourism industry is booming and will continue to rise unless care providers and health insurance companies are making sincere efforts to reduce the cost of health insurance. Medical travel is not a problem. Is the response of cheaper medical solutions. Unless the health care sector in Western countries to find answers to reduce costs, medical tourism, and the answer will surely be the most convincing.