Let me show you my holiday photos. This is me in the hospital. These are the stitches from my operation. Sound strange? Maybe, but we think medical tourism may be the wave of the future.
Medical tourism is based on the fact that healthcare is so expensive in the USA that if you need or want elective surgery, for anything from a facelift or dental implants to a hip replacement or heart bypass, it's more cost effective to have the procedure done in India, Thailand or Costa Rica than at home in America. Maybe it's because domestic hospitals have to pay so much to insurance companies for malpractice coverage. I guess that blame would then go back to greed, or lawyers, or greedy lawyers, but that's not the point.
Whatever the root cause, surgery is so expensive in the United States that it's cheaper to fly to New Dehli and have your operation there than it is to stay home. Figures posted at medical tourism websites say you and a partner can fly to Thailand, enjoy the beaches, visit some temples, have an operation and fly back home for about 75% less. No wonder medical tourism is gaining so much attention.
Here's another twist: Companies are finding it cheaper to cancel their employee health benefit insurance and instead, self-insure their employees by sending them overseas for medical treatment. Of course the care they get is just as good. World-class healthcare quality is assured by dealing only with internationally accredited hospitals.
And it's not only happening in America. Canadians and Europeans, who have nationally funded healthcare, are going overseas because they don't have to wait in long waiting lists. Why wait a year for knee surgery when you can get it tomorow in Bangkok?
Isn't life strange?
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