« Of Nancy Pelosi and Who Controls the Iraq War
Low Bush Polls And Historical Ranking Negative For McCain Presidential Campaign »
Health Tourism In India: Remarkable Strides
India has not only pipped China to become Asia’s most popular destination for conducting clinical trials, but also emerged as a favourite country attracting a large number of medical tourists from the world, according to a high-level 10-month long study by India’s Planning Commission.
“The report said while a heart bypass surgery would cost a patient $6,000 in India, the same surgery would cost the person $7,894 in Thailand, $10,417 in Singapore, $23,938 in the US and $19,700 in Britain. A cosmetic surgery would cost $3,500 in Thailand, $20,000 in the US and $10,000 in Britain. But the same surgery would cost only $2,000 in India, the report said.
” ‘What is significant is that the hospitals established by the private corporate players are of world class. They have not only the latest medical technological facilities but also the services of Indian doctors and nurses with a high degree of proficiency,’ said the group’s chairman, Anwarul Hoda, who is the member (International Economics) in the Planning Commission. The Indian government has moved to provide visa facilities for the medical tourists, it added.
“The main clientele comes from the SAARC countries but an increasing number of NRIs settled in the US and Britain have also been availing of the healthcare services in India, it said. Already some hospitals are entering into alliance with international insurance companies for making it possible to send patients to India for treatment, it added.
“The report said the competitiveness of India in medical value travel is enhanced by the attractiveness of the alternative systems of medicine, particularly ayurveda. Over 1.5 lakh medical tourists travelled to India in 2002 alone, bringing in earnings of $300 million. Since then, the number of such travellers has been increasing by at least 25% every year. A Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)-McKinsey report projects that earnings through medical tourism would go up to $2 billion by 2012.
“According to the American Medical Association data, a spinal fusion would cost $62,000 in the US, $5,500 in India, $7,000 in Thailand and $9,000 in Singapore.”
opinions powered by SendLove.to
3 Responses to “Health Tourism In India: Remarkable Strides”
I'm skeptical about medical tourism, generally. Without a robust international civil code, the prevailing mode for international commerce is caveat emptor and without good, reliable means of evaluating prospective vendors or getting a redress of grievances I think that American consumers, accustomed to the American legal system, American consumer protection laws, and American malpractice laws, would be prudent to be very , very cautious.
I have been to India for my hip replacement treatment. I did a lot of research and found out about http://www.valuemedicare.com, a leader in medical tourism. ValueMedicare gave me excellent services. Though this company is a little expensive compare to others but then you get treated by the best doctors in the best hospitals and there services are at bar with the best.
I look forward to US Health Insurance companies promoting medical tourism.
I favor a certain amount of competition to keep variable costs contained.