What is medical tourism?

Medical tourism / Medical Travel is simply the practice of going abroad to obtain medical treatments. So Medical tourism is ideally a combination of medical treatments and vacation in a foreign country. This practice allows patient to receive top quality healthcare services in a country of choice with very affordable price.

If person would travel thousands of miles to holidays, why not travel the same for medical procedure done?

A forecast report by Deloitte Consulting published in August 2008 projected that medical tourism from US could jump by a factor of ten over the next decade. An estimated 750,000 Americans went abroad as a medical tourist in 2007, and the report estimated that a million and a half would seek health care outside the US in 2008. The growth in medical tourism has the potential to cost US health care providers billions of dollars in lost revenue.

Medical tourism is growing at a rate of 20% a year. Countries like India have been quick to recognize that the western world is not able to provide the timely medical cure to its citizens. In US, UK, Canada it is common to wait for more then 6 months to be seen after referral is made and while tests for medical procedure are scheduled, additional time passes waiting for test results. Non emergency medical treatments may be extending for up to two years. There is ideally no waiting period in foreign countries like India that are marketing Medical tourism.

Although medical tourism is gaining fast ground, it is not a very new concept. People from the ancient times too had been travelling long distances to cure their ailments (History of medical tourism).

Some of the Driving force for medical tourism:

· Cost effectiveness

· Almost no waiting period for medical treatments

· Quality of care that medical tourism destination country provide

· Increasing Number of uninsured/ under insured/ Restricted coverage Americans

· Favorable currency exchange rate

· ease and affordability of international travel

Medical tourism for knee replacement/hip replacements has emerged as one of the most widely accepted medical procedures as the lower cost and minimal difficulties associated with the travelling to/from the surgery. India offers a knee replacement surgery (one side) for about $4,000 USD, including all associated medical hospital fees, such as FDA-approved prosthetics and hospital stay-over expenses.

Popular medical travel destinations:

· India

· Thailand

· Costa Rica

· Brazil

· Argentina

· South Africa

· Philippines

· Singapore

Etc