Why Medical Tourism is so Popular options

Medical tourism is not a new concept by any means. People have been traveling to get treatment from healers and doctors for thousands of years. Yet this kind of travel has become increasingly popular in recent years, largely because for many it has become difficult to get quality treatment at affordable prices at home.

It is estimated that 500,000 Americans traveled out of the country to get medical treatment and dental work in 2005 and the numbers continue to rise. Medical tourism is a burgeoning industry, as destination countries offer quality treatment and accommodations at a fraction of the cost back home with the added benefit of a luxury vacation tacked on.

So why travel thousands of miles to get treatment you could just as easily get at your local hospital? While the reasons vary for each person, here are some of the major reasons medical tourism is so popular with patients all over the world.

1. Potential Savings — The driving force behind the medical tourism market is the potential for savings. For those without insurance or those needing operations that insurance won't cover, medical tourism can be an affordable alternative to the skyrocketing costs of health care. Costs for major surgeries in the United States can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars while the same surgery in a country like India or Thailand can be as little as a tenth of that. The cost differential isn't caused by a lack of quality, but because a good portion of health care costs in the U.S. are tied up in administrative and insurance costs. While there is a risk involved with not having a firm legal recourse if something goes wrong, you can at least know that your money is going towards your actual care rather than to shuffle some papers around.
2. Shorter Waits — Even people who live in countries with public health care coverage often choose to take their treatment abroad because overburdened hospitals and doctors can have long wait periods for surgeries on conditions that are not life-threatening. While a bum knee might not be life threatening, it sure can make your life difficult and uncomfortable, and for some waiting months to get surgery simply isn't an option. In most countries where medical tourism is popular, wait times are almost non-existent. Patients can usually be scheduled for a surgery within a few days or weeks allowing patients convenience not available at home.
3. Quality — If most people are honest, they will admit that the first place that comes to mind when they think of world class health care isn't India or the Philippines. Yet this is a bit of an unfair stereotype. Many of the countries where medical tourism has become popular have made significant investments in the industry to ensure that patients are happy and healthy. Many doctors have been trained abroad, and some are leaders in their fields. With careful research, it's possible to get the same if not better treatment abroad than you could at home.
4. Relaxing Recovery — Traveling for medical treatment gives you the added benefit of helping yourself to a relaxing vacation while you're in recovery. Depending on the location you choose and the type of surgery you have, you could spend a relaxing week on the beach, a mountain resort, or just living it up in a luxury hotel. While it isn't advisable to party too hard after surgery, being away from home can give you a break from the stresses of everyday life and allow you to relax and concentrate on getting better.
5. Insurance Coverage — While it isn't a guarantee, there are some insurance plans that will cover treatment that is performed outside of your home country provided that it isn't an elective procedure. More and more insurance providers are covering treatment abroad, as it saves them in costs as well.
6. You Can Bring Friends and Family — Because of the reduced cost of treatment abroad, if can be completely feasible to bring others along and still spend less than you would have at home. This can help make foreign treatment less scary, and also provide a vacation for the whole family. Some hospitals can even provide accommodation for relatives at less than the cost of a hotel.
7. Same Facilities and Equipment as Home — Because medical tourism is such a big industry, hospitals are making big investments in equipment and technology to help them draw more patients. Some hospitals have even made names for themselves as world class research centers. Essentially, there is little difference between these facilities and those at home. In fact, many top hospitals in medical tourism destination countries are associated with a well-respected hospital in the United States.
8. Package Deals — If you are unsure where to start when getting medical treatment abroad, package deals can be a great time saver. Many companies specialize in providing patients with not only their treatment, but vacations afterwards, travel to and from the airport and all of the accommodations needed. It can make travel much less stressful to let someone else do all the work. The best part about these kinds of deals is that even with all the extras, they can still be cheaper than treatment at home.
9. Surgical Options — While the most popular options with medical tourists are cosmetic and dental surgeries, the reality is that there is a growing market for a wide variety of procedures including heart surgery and orthopedic hip and knee replacements. Chances are good that if you need a particular type of care that there will be a surgeon specialized in it to help you out.
10. Luxury Accommodations — Many hospitals that cater to medical tourists are corporately owned and therefore are in staunch competition with other hospitals to draw you in to their facilities. This can be a real boon to patients, who benefit from private rooms and luxury accommodations that are often much nicer than they would be able to afford at home.
11. Service — Patients can usually expect a high level of personal care and attention from hospitals and clinics that are popular with medical tourists. Many have very low staff to patient ratios and many pride themselves on friendly patient relations.
12. Travel is Affordable — While fuel costs have risen in the past few years, air travel is still an affordable and relatively convenient way to travel. With the wide variety of websites that cater to getting you the lowest rate on flights and hotels, the costs of traveling to a foreign country can be nominal when compared to the savings from not having surgery at home.

While medical tourism isn't the answer for everyone, it's easy to see why it's become such a popular option for people all over the world. Not only can it save you a bundle, but you'll also get the benefit of getting surgery quickly and being able to relax and take in the sights while you're recovering. While it's up to you to decide if it's the right option for your care, with rising health care costs it's definitely something to consider.
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First Class Plastic surgery in Colombia

Plastic surgery in Colombia is another ace for medical tourism. The concept of flying abroad to save money from plastic surgery cost is nothing new to Colombia. Bogota, its capital city is a center of advanced healthcare learning and medical innovation for years. This cosmopolitan city offers one of the most sought after affordable plastic surgery in the world. Several cities throughout Colombia have a considerable number of certified surgeons and medical professionals that practice affordable plastic surgery. These professionals promotes utmost safety and comfort patients are accustomed to at home.

Majority of the patients that visit Colombia are brought in by medical tourism providers from their own country. These agencies prepare travel packages that allows patients to be taken care of by world class medical practitioners in the country. In a way, medical tourism providers acts as negotiators and communicate patients to surgeons or vice versa. As providers they do research for plastic surgery costs, the selection of only the most highly skilled doctors and surgeons that could offer high quality but affordable plastic surgery and lastly, introduce patients to luxurious accommodations and incredible tourism opportunities while staying in Colombia.

These past few years the number of foreign patients choosing to undergo plastic surgery in Colombia is increasing. Like Brazil, ease of travel and relative proximity from the US and Canada is an advantage. Colombia offers cheaper airfares from the US and Canada (and some European countries) than other more-distant destinations, and does not have the visa restrictions of other countries currently in the medical tourism market. In terms of cost, Colombia can perform a knee replacement for around US$5,000, about one-fifth of the cost in the US. Plastic surgery cost are also the same, patients could save up to 50-70 percent of elective procedures from the United States if they choose to undergo plastic surgery in Colombia.

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medical tourism trend and increasing impact on the healthcare landscape

The wealthy citizens of developing countries have frequently traveled to the U.S. and Western Europe to seek the expertise and gain access to advanced technology available at leading medical centers. Recently, a trend categorized as "medical tourism" has emerged, wherein citizens of highly-developed countries choose to bypass care offered in their own communities and travel to developed areas of the world to receive a wide variety of medical services in order to save money. Medical tourism is fundamentally different from the traditional model of international "medical travel," where patients generally journey from less-developed nations to major medical centers in highly-developed countries for medical treatment that is unavailable in their own communities.

This report focuses on the medical tourism trend that will have an increasing impact on the healthcare landscape in industrialized and developing countries around the world. The term "medical tourism" does not accurately reflect the reality of the patient's situation or the advanced medical care provided in these destinations. Nevertheless, it provides an unambiguous way of differentiating the recent phenomenon of medical tourism from the traditional model of international medical travel. This phenomenon is driven by marketplace forces and occurs outside of the purview and control of the organized healthcare system. Medical tourism presents important concerns and challenges as well as potential opportunities. This analysis will examine the international locales that are experiencing a dramatic increase in medical tourism, with particular emphasis on Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America.
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