Medical Tourism

 Medical tourism is a relatively new term used to describe an amazing amount of people in the world who travel the world over for health care. Why these people travel and for what differs, but basically there are two types of medical tourists - the regular tourist that adds a visit to the doctor for some minor treatment, as part of their vacation, and the tourist who travels primarily for medical therapy.

Before there was even a term "medical tourism", it was common among the wealthy do in third world countries to travel to the U.S., Switzerland and Germany for medical care. But since 2000 this trend has reversed and now countries such as Thailand, attracts patients from USA, Canada and Britain.

This new market has grown as a modern health care systems worldwide are struggling to meet the medical needs of its own people. In the U.S., the cost of care beyond the means of most people and there are an estimated 40 million people without health insurance. Even in Britain, Canada and Holland see socialized health care affordable, the demand for care far outstrips supply and waiting lists for surgery or special media medicine can be as long as two to three years.

Today, governments, insurance companies and employers looking closely at outsourcing medical treatments as a way to improve access and lower medical costs for its citizens, policyholders and employees.

Thailand's health is about half the cost of similar services in Singapore, a third of the cost in Hong Kong and one-tenth of the cost in the U.S..

What are the medical tourists and what are they looking for?

More broadly, the medical tourists for specialty surgical and medical services. The recent surge in popularity of plastic surgery has led to a new wave of medical tourists and headlines such as "sun, sea and surgery" or "Scalpel tourism" have helped to create buzz for this growing problem. Medical tourism destinations such as Thailand, to promote the benefits of high quality medical care as just one more reason to visit the kingdom.

Elective outpatient procedures that health, dental and Lasik eye surgery is becoming increasingly popular and there is a growing interest on the part of the tourism industry to include these services as part of the holiday. Higher intensity medical services, such as spinal and cardiac surgery, represents a major challenge because these medical services are not as easily packaged and requires considerably more knowledge of medicine.

Bumrungrad Hospital, located in central Bangkok, is a major player in medical tourism field in Thailand, attracting over 360,000 international patients every year from over 150 countries worldwide. But Bumrungrad is not alone. There are a lot of other hospitals in Thailand and also in out-lying regions that aggressively market their hospitals to capture a piece of this rapidly growing market. Both Bumrungrad Hospital and India-based Apollo Hospital was recently on CBS's award-winning news program "60 Minutes" as a medical tourism destination for a growing number of Americans.

Reliable figures on the size and growth of medical tourism is hard to come by, because the government and immigration are not yet categorize inbound travelers who come for medical care. That said, the Tourism Authority of Thailand actively promoting medical tourism as medical tourists on average spend more and stay longer than leisure travelers.

So whether you are casual visitors who will benefit from some minor medical work while in Thailand, or if you plan your vacation around your surgery, Thailand is the place to go and get it done professionally and at a great price.