HealthAbroad.net: Point of View

The number of people traveling from Western Europe to Poland for cheaper medical care is likely to rise by 20 percent per year.

Visitors from Western Europe can get some medical treatments in Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary for upto 60 percent of the costs in their own countries. The proliferation of low cost airlines has given an additional impetus to this trend.

With the medical tourism industry estimated to be worth $188 billion by 2013, Philippines is eager to levearage its cost effectiveness for medical surgery along with tourism potential to tap into the pie. A somewhat late entrant into the race, it faces stiff competition from other Asian countries such as Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and India who have already stolen a march over it.

Coronary bypass surgery that costs an average of $50,000 in the US, costs between $10,000-25,000 in the Philippines. Lasik eye surgery which costs $3000 in the US comes for $1000 in the Philippines and breast augmentation costs $2000 while the same costs approximately $5,000 in the US.

Although larger hospitals are logging into medical tourism and modernizing their equipment and facilities, Philippines has a fair distance to cover and sort out the structural weaknesses of the health industry. Another problem is the growing flight of well qualified medical professionals to the West and the Middle East. Unless medical professionals see any value for themselves in staying back and having a good quality of life in the Philippines, brain drain will be irreversible and detrimental to the planned growth in medical tourism.  

Michael Moore is at it again, for better or for worse. Sicko, his new flick on the state of the American healthcare system is creating quite a media buzz at Cannes. Knowing that he is a bit of a rabble rouser and enjoys getting under the skin of his detractors, this new production is surely going to start a fiery debate. So put on the warpaint and please don’t bring a knife to a gun fight!

Under its “Comment is Free” section, The Guardian carries an interesting piece on his film. The views expressed are solely of the writers and we do not subscribe to or reject them. This is only an FYI.

A few numbers from the article-

1. 50 million Americans have no healthcover
2. 250 million American who do have healthcover are denied treatment when they need it.

I personally can’t wait to see the film. Watch the official trailer here.

It’s my birthday today and I’m in negotiations with HealthAbroad.net to send me to Japan so I can get myself a facial. A pure gold facial! 

The facial which places gold leaf on the face to accelerate cell growth in the basal layer of the skin is supposed to rejuvenate the skin and helps remove wrinkles and blemishes. The treatment is available at 30 salons and spas across Japan and a session which lasts between one and two hours costs $170.

After the facial, I plan to go to Tokyo’s Ritz-Carlton for a “diamond-tini”, a cocktail with a hint of lime and chilled Belvedere vodka over a 1.06 carat stone. Only for $3760. Fantastic stuff. Such Luxury. Only in Japan.  

BBC News online has a story on how France has the best survival rates in Europe in spite of Britain’s NHS having some of the finest cancer specialists in the world. The reason? Speed of treatment.

So while the UK has 2.3 doctors for every 1,000 patients, France has 3.4 for the same number. Also, France has more radiotherapy machines meaning that patients are assured of receiving their treatment on time and without delay, which is not the case in Britain. The article also points out that importantly France spends more on cancer medicines. While UK spends 400 million pounds per year, France spends in excess of 900 million pounds.

An interview with Dr. Jason Yap on how and why Singapore is promoting medical tourism in a big way. Dr. Yap is the Director of Information Services of the Singapore Medicine section of the Singapore Tourism Board.

A few things to point out from the interview:

• in 2006, more than 400,000 patients came to Singapore with a majority from neighboring South East Asian countries and others from the Middle East, North America and Europe.

• Patients are seeking out Singapore for high end, complex and research driven elective surgeries such as pediatric luekemia, bone marrow transplants, cancer treatments in addition to the usual knee and hip replacements.

• Singapore is marginally more expensive than India but also benefits from having better infrastructure. A knee replacement which costs around $40,000 in the US, costs around $9000 in Singapore and around $6,000 in India.

p.s- Very informative blog as well.

500,000 in the last year to be exact, according to the Turkish culture and tourism ministry undersecretary.

The Anatolia region is the prime European location for geothermal potential and is likely to attract investments in medical tourism and real estate.

Geothermal springs and geysers and the cheap yet high quality surgical procedures attract foreign and mainly European patients to Turkey.

A study released yesterday has found that American hospitals are charging uninsured patients as much as two and a half times more than those with health insurance. The American Hospital Association (AHA), which represents the country’s 5,000 or so hospitals in its rebuttal said that the report was out of date and methodogically flawed.

So how are rates fixed in American hospitals?

Hospitals set rates based on a list called the chargemaster, which is generally believed to inflate prices substantially, in the belief that prices will come down during a negotiation process.

But patients without health insurance, about 45 million of them in the US, lack the ability to negotiate and with hospitals only meant to earn 10 cents on every dollar charged to uninsured patients, they have to bear the economic burden of medicare.

The study is authored by Gerard Anderson, Director of the Center for Hospital Finance and Management at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Public Health.

Philippines is planning to relax rules and increase the quota for kidney transplant for foreigners. At present the country has a 10% ceiling for foreign beneficiaries of kidney transplants, a limit that is often breached.

By crossing the border, Texans are cutting medical costs by half.

The presence of well trained doctors, modern facilities, state-of-the-art equipment has meant that regardless of what side of the border one is on, an equivalent quality of medicare is available at a lower cost on the Mexican side. Lasik eye surgery which costs nearly $4000 in Texas, costs $1200 in Monterrey in Mexico. Generally speaking medicare prices are in Mexico are a third of those in the US.

Due to its proximity and low prices, Mexico is among the top destinations for medical tourism among American patients.