Photo courtesy of the Aschwalds
PASSAGE TO INDIA: Howard and Michelle Aschwald of Belvedere traveled to India in March this year so Howard could have laser eye surgery performed at a Mumbai clinic.
The eye surgery that Aschwald had is considered elective and would not have been covered by his Blue Shield insurance. He would have paid for the operation himself regardless, reports Marin Independent Journal (MIJ).
“I’ve got one of those wonderful $5,000 deductible policies,” Aschwald said.
MIJ adds: “A Santa Clara doctor quoted Aschwald a price of $4,895 for surgery to correct myopia. The cost in India was $1,250. The surgery was performed by an Indian doctor trained in London using laser equipment made in Germany – so new that it hasn’t yet been licensed in the United States.
“Aschwald said he would have spent $2,000 in the United States for the CT angiogram that cost him $225 in India.
“It took the Aschwalds 25 hours to fly to India, not counting a six-hour layover in Singapore. They paid $1,450 apiece for airfare and $185 a night to stay at The Orchid, an ecology hotel in the exclusive Bollywood section of Mumbai where the eye clinic was located.
“They arrived on a Wednesday. Aschwald had his CT angiogram performed the next day. On Sunday, he had his eye surgery and on the next Tuesday the couple flew to another area in India and began touring. The temperatures during their 17-day visit were in the 80s. It rained only once.
“Because Americans going abroad for medical treatment often combine business and pleasure, the trend is typically referred to as medical tourism.”
The latest edition (May 23) of the Time magazine reports that “as word has spread about the high-quality care and cut-rate surgery available in such countries as India, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, a growing stream of uninsured and underinsured Americans are boarding planes not for the typical face-lift or tummy tuck but for discount hip replacements and sophisticated heart surgeries.
“Bumrungrad alone, according to CEO Curtis Schroeder, saw its stream of American patients climb to 55,000 last year, a 30% rise. Three-quarters of them flew in from the U.S.; 83% came for noncosmetic treatments. Meanwhile, India’s trade in international patients is increasing at the same rate.
“Is the quality of care in foreign hospitals high enough? To cater to an international clientele, many private hospitals abroad are applying for accreditation (many of them successfully) from the Joint Commission International, the global arm of the institution that accredits most U.S. hospitals.
“Many of the tourist hospitals teem with surgeons who have trained in the U.S. or Britain, which is a great comfort to American patients (the irony is that 25% of physicians in the U.S. got their M.D.s abroad). Escorts Heart Institute and Research Center in Delhi, for instance, was founded by an authority on robotic cardiac surgery, Dr. Naresh Trehan, formerly of New York University.
“Trehan plans to launch next year, in partnership with GE, the first installment of a vast, $250 million specialty Escorts hospital complex near New Delhi that will feature luxury suites, a hotel and swank restaurants for patients and their families. ‘We will be the Mayo Clinic of the East,’ he says. Max Healthcare is also planning a specialty complex in New Delhi (fields: neurologic, orthopedic, ob-gyn and pediatric).”
India’s fast becoming a favoured destination for dental surgery, says an article in today’s (May 22) edition of a leading Indian newspaper The Hindu.
“Not only is treatment cheaper here, Indian doctors are also considered the best. Two leading politicians from Afghanistan and medical tourists from countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom recently visited a cosmetic dental surgeon in South Delhi to get their teeth repaired and fixed. With new surgical techniques being adopted by the Indian doctors which not only make the dental procedures almost painless but also extremely quick, for patients abroad India is fast becoming a favoured destination for dental surgery.”
A leading dentist was quoted as saying that now the procedures take very little time. As against three months for a complete implant of all 32 teeth, it now takes just about a week for even the elderly who have lost all their teeth to get a shining new set.
“For foreigners India is becoming an attractive destination as not only is treatment much cheaper here, Indian doctors are also considered the best in the world,” said a dental cosmetic surgeon. Moreover, he pointed out that as German and Swiss implants are being used by him and other doctors here and the best of infrastructure is being provided by them, many foreigners now find India ideal to get themselves treated.
“And for Indians, he said, the procedures have also become much cheaper than before due to advent of new techniques and spread of technology. A complete dental implant which used to cost around Rs 40,000 earlier, now only costs about Rs 25,000.”
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.