Wockhardt Hospitals Blog

They New York Times yesterday published an article on Medical Tourism outlining the benefits of medical tourism specially in times of increasing depressing economic conditions.

The article talks about an American executive working for Bank of America chose to go to Costa Rica for his double hernia operation rather than going to a local hospital in Columbia
Going Abroad to Find Affordable Health Care - NYTimes.com

With over 85,000 Americans choose to travel abroad for medical procedures each year, according to a recent report by the consulting firm McKinsey & Company.

Most American patients or medical travelers which they are mostly known as , Treatment includes dental implants, hip and knee replacements, heart valve replacements and bypass surgery. The cost of surgery performed overseas can be as little as 20 percent of the price of the same procedure in the United States, according to a recent report by the American Medical Association.

While the Nytimes reports accepts that the bulk of medical tourism candidates are uninsured and underinsured people paying their own bills and looking for low-cost alternatives to American care. Most Medical tourism advocates and Americans who have actually been to countries like India argue that the quality of care overseas is often equal to or better than that in the United States. Many countries have high success rates, American-trained English-speaking doctors and the newest facilities, often built specifically to attract foreign patients.

While this is not the first time that the mainstream US media has started to cover medical tourism in a big way,what would be interesting if this Medical Tourism Growth has any affect on the Obama's proposed rehauling of the American Health care system While it is clear that outsourcing has been one of the issues that the Democrats has taken on a very tough stand on, Medical Outsourcing of Health is something that is independent of Government Regulation or Idealogy. As long as Hospitals in the Developing countries provides quality at competitive costs medical Tourism will continue to grow..

The American Medical Association, has issued guidelines on medical travel, which ymou can check here issued guidelines on medical tourism . (They’re available on the Web at tinyurl.com/cpklcw.)