Why travel overseas for surgery?

Posted by surgery on November 19, 2009 under Medical tourism | Be the First to Comment

Millions of people are doing medical tourism these days. They travel to another country for surgery or health care for three main reasons, but the most obvious is to save money. It is estimated that such procedures as total hip replacement, knee replacement or breast reduction cost about 75% less in India or Thailand than in the USA.

Of course, people would not do this if it was dangerous. Few people would risk their lives to save even tens of thousands of dollars. But the world of medicine has changed dramatically over the past decades. What were once third world countries now have world class hospitals and medical centers more modern than those in many American cities.

In fact, some of the most well respected medical institutions in the U.S. now operate hospitals abroad, including Johns Hopkins, Harvard and the Mayo Clinic.

Many excellent hospitals overseas have surgeons who have trained in America and speak excellent English. Furthermore, medical tourism has become very important in countries such as Costa Rica, Panama, India and Malaysia, and they attract patients from the USA, Canada, and Europe by not only offering some of the finest medical care in the world but also hospital rooms that are as luxurious as in a five-star hotel.

Besides saving money while getting top quality medical procedures, another reason why people are choosing to travel overseas for surgery is to avoid long waiting periods. In countries such as Canada and the UK, where universal health care is provided by the government, it may take months to get the surgery that is needed or desired. Other procedures such as dental implants or breast augmentation plastic surgery are not covered by government health plans.

Whether it is to save money on essential surgery, get medical services that existing medical insurance does not cover, or to get their procedures done more quickly, medical tourism has become a huge industry. An estimated 750,000 Americans traveled overseas for health care in 2007 and that number may stretch to as high as 5 million by the end of 2010.