bfeuling

I have been a member for the past couple months and love the site. Great discussions and suggestions from members.

I am throwing around an idea with a couple other people and wondered what the FT community thinks. The area concerns going overseas for medical treatments, and since you are all travelers, what do you think about this area? What kind of frequent flyer miles would entice you to go overseas for medical procedures? What other incentives would make it worth your while to go overseas?

Any thoughts would be welcome. I thank you in advance for your time. If you have traveled overseas for an operation and would be willing to talk further, I would appreciate it greatly.

xanthuos

There was a topic about that here. Personally, I'm interested in doing it at a later date when I'm able to afford the procedure(s) I'd like to have.

mahasamatman

Is this to perform medical procedures (like Doctors Without Borders), or to have medical procedures performed on you?

bfeuling

xanthuos - thank you for the link to the previous post

mahasamatman - specifically we are looking into moving patients across country borders to peform medical procedures that they need or would like.

flipside

I don't think this is appropriate for "MilesBuzz".

I'll go ahead and move it to TravelBuzz.

Regards

Flipside

cpx

Personally I dont think this is a new idea. This has been happeninf for years
in some parts of the world for a while now.

The main incentives for this are: Availability, quality and cost of healthcare.
for years I've observed people from African and Middle eastern countries
visit India for major treatments. Usually some major surgery.

Based on what I've heard, they dont find such treatments and even if they
do, the quality is sub par. Cost is also a big factor, but many times its not
the motivation. Insurance pays for many of these cases.

For past few years, I've seen patients from Europe, North America
and many other first and second world country join this trend.
This recent trend is mainly due to the publicity and the cost.
Some of these patients are uninsured and the cost of the same
treatment in US would prohibitive.

There are several new Private hospitals around India who cater to
a non-resident patient base. Standards and excellent and the skill
sets are above many standards. Many international insurance
companies are cutting deals with them to make Medical Tourism
a common thing.

I've mainly seen the good things, but you also have to consider
the down side of this. First you are travelling to a place you have
very little knowledge of. If the results is not desirable, how to
handle it, what are the legal rights etc.. etc.. I'm sure some
people may have horror stories.

Based on what I've seen from either side of it, it seems to be
a good idea. Increasing number of people are doing this even for a
routine checkup.

22wingit

If the standard of care is excellent, who cares where the work is done?

This certainly isn't a new phenomenon, but for Americans it used to largely go the other way. Wealthy people have been coming to the US for treatment for a long time; for example, Ochsner Hospital in New Orleans has always drawn a very large number of affluent patients from Central and South America.

mosburger

I would expect a stellar growth in this sector as the postwar generations in the industrialized countries are approaching old age and the globalisation process has created new health conscious middle classes in emerging nations. It's no coincidence that major corporations like Intel, GE, Samsung and Siemens have recently announced a strong healthcare focus.

KosraeTV

I've happened to have surgeries in five different countries and for my dollar Thailand is the best place out of the 5. Philippines I had two successful surgeries and will be having another there this year (non-elective, it's where my health insurance sends us for bigger procedures). Philippines is acceptable but I much prefer Thailand. Many Australians instead of getting work done at home will take the family on vacation to Thailand and while there will have some elective surgery. I'm told their entire trip and the procedure was equal to what the procedure alone would have cost them at home in Australia so not only do they get the procedure done, they get a two week family vacation out of it too. This was for some dental work for one family and another couple was there to have some body shaping done. The USA is of course great if you have great insurance but the costs are really high. The other countries I won't mention as it's like witch doctors, I think I could have done better myself in those two places then the doctors did.

It's becoming a big business in Thailand, the service and procedure I had (knee surgery, non-elective) was excellent and by a doctor who studied in the USA, and did his residency at a very famous USA hospital. The entire staff spoke English and I understand that they have staff that speaks a large variety of languages for foreign patients. I would have no problems having work done in Thailand and would prefer to go there over other places.

The med's and equipment were all large international corporations name branded not generic junky stuff. Both Thailand and Philippines had good medical equpiment and both gave me name brand medicine.

RustyC

I think you'd see a real flood but for the cruel fact that the uninsured are also the most likely to not have funds or awareness to go someplace like Thailand. I must be the exception to that. In any case, places like Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok really appear to be booming due to medical tourism. They see not only quite a few people fleeing high costs in their home country (and the USA is sure #1 on costs!), but also many from places like the Middle East that don't have enough availability of care.

GUWonder

A lot of medical facilities in the US cater to medical tourism on the very high-end. Mayo, MD Anderson, Cleveland Clinic, S-K are ones that come to mind that attract big shots (with access to money to burn) and seeking the best care possible in the world. It used to be mostly wealthy/connected Latin Americans and Arabs, and it's still a money-maker for some such named places. However, the increasingly "mass market" version is going to places like Thailand, other parts of Asia (esp. India, Philippines, etc.), Latin America (esp. Mexico, Costa Rica, Argentina, Brazil), and Eastern Europe (esp. Czech Republic, Poland).

I'm just wondering when Dubai will get into the medical tourism industry. They can bring in doctors and nurses from all over Asia and Eastern Europe (to keep the labor costs down), have good infrastructure capabilities, and can get medicines (generics or not) at relatively low costs. All while the kids play at Wild Wadi World.

cpx

I'm wondering the same, but first they have to start with their locals. I see a
growing number of people from UAE and Oman go to India for
Medical treatments and even routine checkups.

I was surprised to see a couple of people from Oman visiting India
for just a general checkup earlier this year. They even brought
a translator with them since they didnt speak any English.
(or may be something was lost in translation)

LZ-HMI

It strikes me that it's like buying a 'grey import' or brand-name goods on Ebay. Same product (perhaps) but no warranty or after-sales service.

GUWonder

There's no warranty or guaranteed after-sales service even when the medical service is provided in the US. Going to the places I mentioned above is nothing like buying a "grey import" or "brand name" goods on eBay -- at least no more so than procuring medical services in the US. (I'm making a big assumption here in assuming that Australia is no better than the US here. )

Efrem

Miles would absolutely not be any factor in this decision. My decisions on where to get medical treatment are based on medical considerations first, financial ones a distant second, and nothing else. Miles can affect where I choose to eat dinner, what cereal I buy (in the past), where I buy a car and lots of other things, but not this. If I went somewhere for a medical procedure, the only thing miles would influence is what airline I'd take to get there.