Health Tourism Worldwide: Benefits & Advantages

Health tourism is generally defined as organized travel outside one’s local environment for the maintenance, enhancement, or restoration of an individual’s wellbeing in mind and body. Medical tourism is regarded as more organized travel outside one’s natural health care jurisdiction.

Common categories of procedures that medical travelers pursue during healthcare trips are orthopedics and trauma surgery, aesthetics and cosmetic surgery, cardiology or cardiac surgery, bariatric surgery, dentistry, cancer treatment and aftercare.

According to international statistics and facts over 7 million global citizens cross borders yearly to appreciate the benefits and advantages of health tourism. So the health tourism, which also includes medical tourism as a part of it, is like a gateway for medical tourists to receive affordable and cheaper healthcare without compromising on quality.

Why Do Patients Go Abroad?

Researches in health tourism outline 5 major factors of decision-making: affordable, accessible, available, acceptable and additional.

  • Affordable is probably the major reason and this is particularly true for patients from the well-off, developed countries like the USA and the UK, where private health care is expensive, and some surgeries are not covered by their insurance.
  • Available is often because the medical treatment they need is not available in their local areas or not trusted by the patients, as is often the case with patients from developing countries.
  • Accessible applies more particularly to patients from countries where the waiting list is too long, particularly to National Health Service patients in the UK and in Canada. In the UK, private health care may be available locally, but is expensive.
  • Acceptable applies to services, which may be affordable, available, and accessible, but they are not acceptable in the patient’s own country for religious, political or other social reasons.
  • Additional refers to the availability of better care, perhaps technology, specialist, or simply prime service and personalized care abroad compared to care in home country.

Affordability or Significant Cost Savings

So, related to above mentioned, there are several reasons why people prefer to go overseas for healthcare. For the Americans and Europeans the attraction is cost-effectiveness, i.e. affordability. The real cost savings may range between 25%-80% or over in some cases: for example, the price of a coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) is over $110,000 in the USA but only $12,000 in Turkey; heart valve replacements cost $150,000 in the USA, but only $9,500 in India and etc. As to patients without or with a limited health insurance medical tourism is a reasonable option to go overseas for treatment. So, the cost factor is still the major reason in decision-making to go overseas for healthcare.

Availability or high-quality healthcare

Besides the financial benefit, there are other advantages for a patient to have treatment abroad in a center of excellence for certain conditions. Many of medical centers in the countries seeking to develop medical tourism invite professionals from well-known health care centers from the USA, the UK or Europe and are thus able to offer excellent medical care.

Another key point in health tourism is that medical centers worldwide have earned accreditation from international accreditation institutes such as JCI or ISO. So far, there are over half a thousand of JCI-accredited medical facilities all over the world, which give patients access to high standards of healthcare that may otherwise not be available in host countries.

Accessibility or no waiting period

Medical tourism gives patients an opportunity for immediate access to medical services with next to zero waiting period. It serves as a timely and effective solution to patients from countries with public healthcare systems since they could be placed on the priority list.

Additionally or other benefits

Healthcare facilities tied up with medical tourism agencies offer aftercare services allowing patients to receive exclusive attention and care during recovering in a relaxed atmosphere.

Also, medical tourism gives patients a chance to explore new destinations and get wants and needs met. So that medical tourists can hold high-quality healthcare and enjoy travel overseas together for less price than for the only treatment in home countries.

In fact, medical tourism facilitators and healthcare providers in some countries seeking to develop medical tourism are encouraged and supported by their host governments, e.g.

  • India has introduced a special M-Visa category for medical tourists;
  • Malaysia’s Ministry of Health has formed a special national committee for the promotion of health tourism;
  • Turkey’s Ministry of Health has recently announced special healthcare program for the promotion of health tourism.

These patterns have even contributed to the reversal of the geographical trend of medical tourism: if, in the past, patients from the East were travelling to the West to get high-quality healthcare, nowadays, patients from developed Western countries, travel East, to developing countries for the best medical and technologically advanced health care.

So, today such destinations like Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Costa Rica, Israel, Turkey, India, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand are commonly recognized as a well-established and leading medical tourism hubs in the world.

The true benefits and advantages of medical tourism that international patients may experience are briefed in the following fact sheet:

  • Internationally accredited medical facilities using the advanced technologies
  • Highly qualified Physicians and medical support staff
  • Significant cost savings compared to domestic healthcare
  • Medical treatment costs are lower by at least 25-80% when compared to similar procedures in the UK or the USA
  • No waiting list – immediate access
  • Fluent native-speaking staff
  • Patient-focused concept: options for private room, interpreter, personal chef, dedicated staff during patient’s stay and many other tailor-made services
  • Round-trip travel support – from medical consulting before treatment up to a wide range of travel assistance throughout trip planning such as bookings, visa, transfer, accommodation, personal services and etc.
  • Healthcare may easily be mixed with a holiday / business trip
  • Aftercare programs

As a reasonable conclusion, it may be said that a phenomenon commonly known as health or medical tourism has a rapidly increasing trend worldwide and in the light of this, the concept of global health tourism surely appeals to anyone who seeks both high-quality and cost-effective healthcare.


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