You may be wondering if you read the headlines correctly. You did. Other countries offer the same top quality medical services as developed countries, for as little as 10% of the cost! Most procedures are reported to be 1/5 or 1/6 of the quoted price in a developed country. Affordable and accessible air travel with tight security makes it possible for a person to choose medical services from anywhere in the world now, not just in the town you live in! The incredibly discounted prices are not those of the unregulated, back alley operations that are in every corner of the world. These are prices offered by fully accredited state of the art facilities, equipped with the latest technology and staffed with some of the best trained doctors in the world.
You may wonder how it is that a foreign country can offer what your own country cannot. If you live in the United States, the answer is very simple. The cost of insurance propels the medical field into a high cost service. Doctors in the U.S.
pay an exorbitant amount in malpractice insurance, facilities have high overhead expenses and insurance policies on their buildings, equipment, and the staff who are employed there. Someone needs to pay for all of those insurance policies, and unfortunately that someone is the patient. Some 4.3 million people in the U.S.
do not have insurance, due to the high cost of insurance premiums. It is not uncommon for a person to pay $100-$200 a week for medical coverage. That is $5-10,000 a year, and many have already paid taxes on that money! A person working for a low wage cannot possibly afford this cost and are left uninsured. Medical tourism offers a viable alternative, for the high cost procedures that would be impossible to pay otherwise. The $10,000 that would have been paid in an annual policy can completely pay for a heart bypass in an Asian Country, instead of facing a charge of $70-80,000 in the U.
S. A person can have a knee replacement for just 6,000 in another country, as opposed to $50,000 or more in the developed country. With discounted airfares and full accommodations included in many foreign package quotes, an uninsured person can actually save money and still get top quality services when needed. Many people are paying high premiums AND still only have partial coverage.
There are numerous reports of people paying nearly $1,000 a month for catastrophic insurance that has a $5,000 deductible. That puts out of pocket expenses at $15,000 BEFORE having insurance coverage! Who has that kind of cash to throw around? A developing trend in medical tourism is that insurance companies are beginning to send their patients overseas for treatment. Not all insurance companies are willing to pay for treatment in a foreign country, primarily because they are uneducated as to the benefits associated with medical tourism. For the insurance companies who have become informed consumers, there is a trend developing.
These companies realize that it is going to save them money by sending a patient into the global medical community rather than into the local hospital for surgery. Some of the cutting edge insurance agents are offering a substantial discount to customers who are willing to travel abroad for services. These visionary agents know that they will STILL be making a profit, even after offering premium discounts and paying for procedures done overseas.
Others are willing to split the cost savings with the customer, post-surgery. If a person would travel thousands of miles to vacation, why not travel that far to have a medical procedure done? If a person is willing to risk having a foreign doctor perform the procedure in the developed country (E.G. a cardiologist from India, working in Chicago) why does that person not trust going to the same caliber cardiologist in the country of India itself? If a person is willing to fully research the hospitals and credentials in their homeland, why not check the ones abroad and save money by choosing a facility abroad? What individual or corporation (insurance companies included) would turn down the opportunity to save up to 90% of the cost of a medical procedure? A plethora of information is available regarding which facilities are accredited, which have fully trained doctors and which have state of the art equipment and technology. If the only difference is whether or not the service is on home or foreign soil, one needs to consider again the global community we live in. The world used to be a very large place, and traveling an hour for services was unheard of.
Today, people fly all over their homeland to obtain services, but do not often think of traveling outside of the borders of the country. The 21st Century is bringing a new way of getting needs met, and traveling a day to obtain services in another country will soon be as commonplace as traveling a couple of hours within a country is now! Copyright (c) 2008 Medical-Tourism-Guide.com.
Jay Siva is the author of the best seller book "The Complete Guide to Medical Tourism". He reveals vital information on how to successfully plan your medical trip abroad, find discount airfare, American-trained doctors, and internationally- accredited hospitals. You 'll find out such things as how to pick your treatment destination, what you can expect to pay for specific surgical procedures and so much more.
