The ever-increasing numbers and statistics demonstrate the immense popularity of medical tourism. People from all over the world are traveling to other countries for healthcare. By doing so, they are not only enjoying the benefits of travel packages but also saving time and money.
Medical tourism offers huge benefits, suited for the needs of the medical traveler. The monetary benefits come with a simple logic that the cost of living or say living healthy is higher in developed countries compared to the developing or underdeveloped ones. Hence, there is every reason for people to seek healthcare abroad than in their home country. The travel for healthcare abroad becomes even more logical when there are little or no differences in terms of care that developed countries offer.
On the contrary, while people from developed nations travel to save on money, people from underdeveloped nations often take trips to developing or developed nations to access medical care that would otherwise be unavailable to them.
Those who want to save money
The cost of living in the developed countries is comparatively higher. People need to buy new technology, spend on insurance, make car payments, mortgage, regular expenses, and the list goes on. In such a situation, incurring heavy medical expenses could be a jolt strong enough to destroy anyone’s savings and budgeting plans.
According to the WHO, this isn’t a trouble for the individual alone but for governments of the developed and developing countries across the globe. A WHO report also indicates that this unlikely situation has made hundreds of millions of people poorer than ever before. Hence, the need for alternative and medical tourism comes out to be a viable solution. By doing so, you may combine treatments with vacation plans to make the best out of this otherwise unfavorable condition.
When patients decide to travel abroad to seek healthcare, they pay for travel, lodging, and medical services. The whole thing, taken as a package or booked individually, costs far less than what patients have to pay for medical services alone in a developed country. As a result, those who have less means, and/or who want to save big on their medical treatment while enjoying a visit to a different country, become medical travelers and potential medical tourists.
Medical tourism becomes even more logical when we know that we need some medical treatment every now and then and we plan vacations at least once a year. Combining both to save time and money won’t be a bad idea either.
Those who are not able to wait for treatment
Only financial concerns don’t force patients from the developed counties to travel to developing countries for healthcare. Many developed countries like France and UK have very effective nationalized healthcare system that offers excellent services to their patients through their flawless procedures. These healthcare systems are good if we talk about catering to the basic health services.
A coin always has another side too and these healthcare systems are no exceptions. Those who admire these healthcare systems should not forget that patients have to wait, sometimes for a long time, for some specialized and complicated treatments as well as procedures.
On the other hand, medical tourism offers you an opportunity to travel to a different part of the world to seek the best and economical healthcare. Equally important is the fact that waiting time for a procedure or medical treatment is comparatively less if medical vacations are planned on time. Popular medical destinations do their level best to reduce wait time, offer options and provide best possible care with word-class facilities and highly qualified doctors.
Medical tourism might see a rise due to two other factors as well. One, there are approximately 47 million people uninsured in US alone even when Obamacare came to the fore. Many of these uninsured people seek healthcare abroad and many more will continue doing it in future since affordable healthcare for all is still a distant dream.
Secondly, aside from patients opting for medical tourism, health insurance companies have also started sending insured patients overseas for various treatments. The aim is to keep the medical costs down for treatments and procedures that are too costly to afford in the native land. It’s a win-win situation for both – companies save money and patients don’t see waiting lists.
