Eliminate 2 Birds With One Stone – Medical Tourism
Medical tourist is a relatively brand-new term used to explain a remarkable quantity of individuals globally that travel world-wide for health care. Why these people travel and for exactly what varies, however generally there are two types of medical tourists– the routine traveler that adds a check out to the medical professional for some minor treatment, as part of his or her vacation, and the traveler travelling mostly for medical treatment. Before there even was a term ‘medical tourist’, it prevailed practice among the well-to-do in third-world countries to take a trip to the U.S.A, Switzerland and Germany for healthcare. Nevertheless, given that the year 2000, this trend has actually been reversed and now countries such as Thailand, are drawing in clients from the USA, Canada and the United Kingdom.
This brand-new market has grown as contemporary healthcare systems all over the world are struggling to satisfy the medical needs of their own populations. In the United States, the rate of healthcare is beyond the methods of many and there are an approximated 40 million people without medical insurance. While in Britain, Canada and Holland, socialised healthcare makes sure price, demand for medical services far outstrips supply and waiting lists for surgeries or specialty medicine can be as long as two-to-three years. Today, governments, insurers and companies are thoroughly looking at outsourcing medical treatments as a method to enhance access and lower health care costs for their consumers, policy-holders and employees. Thailand’s healthcare services have to do with half the cost of similar services in Singapore, one-third the expense of Hong Kong and one-tenth the cost in the United States. Who are the medical tourists and what are they coming for? By and large, medical tourists are travelling for specialty surgical and medical services.
The recent upsurge in the popularity of cosmetic surgery, however, has actually resulted in a new wave of medical travelers and headlines like “Sun, sea and surgery” or “Scalpel tourist” have assisted produce the buzz for this growing phenomenon. Medical tourism destinations, such as Thailand, promote the benefit of high-quality healthcare as just another need to check out the kingdom. Elective out-patient treatments like check-ups, dental care, and LASIK eye surgical treatment are becoming progressively popular and there is a growing interest on the part of the tourist industry to include these services as part of their travel bundles. Greater strength medical services, like back and heart surgery, present a greater challenge since these medical services are not as quickly packaged and need considerably more understanding about medication. Bumrungrad Health center, located in central Bangkok, is a major player in the medical tourist field in Thailand, attracting over 360,000 global patients every year from over 150 countries worldwide. But Bumrungrad is not alone. There are numerous other medical facilities in Thailand as well as in out-lying regions that are strongly marketing their health centers to record a piece of this fast growing market. Both Bumrungrad Healthcare facility and the India-based Apollo Healthcare facility were just recently included on the CBS award winning news program “60 Minutes” as medical tourist destinations for a growing number of Americans.
Dependable figures on the size and development of medical tourist are difficult to come by, as federal government and immigration statistics do not yet categorize incoming tourists coming for healthcare. That said, the Tourist Authority of Thailand is actively promoting medical tourism as medical travelers on average spend more and stay longer than leisure visitors. So, whether you are the casual visitor that will take advantage of some small medical work while in Thailand, or you are planning your vacation around your surgery, Thailand is the location to go and get it done expertly and at an exceptionally excellent price.
