Medical Tourism...mostly hype !
Stray Dog
these newsgroups how much India was making off of medical tourism,
promoting "come to India for medicine", bragging how cheap it was
(especiall y to come to India), and otherwise "talking up" India and
dismissing accross the board the USA for medicine. Well here is "out"
comeback for that.
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WSJ, Tues, May 6, 2008, page D2:
(small headline on page D1: "Number of medical tourists is far lower
than previously thought")
Page D2 headline: "Medical Tourism is Still Small"
Study by McKinsey & co., says only 60,000-85,000 people per year
travel to another country for medical treatments.
The article says they analyzed records for about 50,000 people, a
large sample size.
Guess what? Most of the travel is _not_ for cheapest prices but to get
a procedure that is not available in the home country!
Guess what? 40% of all travel medicine patients are traveling _to_ the
USA for their procedures.
Pie chart graphic of reasons for travel medicine:
40% for most advanced technoogy
32% for better quality care
15% for quicker access
13% for cheaper cost (pretty low)
Guess what? Most of Americans going abroad for treatments are doing it
because they don't have insurance!
The article quoted from opinions that there was a lot of hype in
medical tourism. Also, a lot of the procedures are cosmetic and dental
in nature, and not related otherwise to hospital admissions.
reinhardt
And the physician caste in India rules the physician patient
relationship
You see this caste treatment in the U.S. with Indian doctors
chastising the patient for being a bad patient