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A BRIEF HISTORY OF
Medical Tourism
TIME With CNN
By Kate Pickert Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2008
Earlier this month, the insurance company WellPoint announced a program that will allow employees of a Wisconsin printing company to get coverage for non-emergency surgeries in India. Over the past few years, some U.S. insurance have announced plans to include foreign medical procedures among those covered by health plans.
It's no wonder. The medical tourism industry has experienced massive growth over the past decade. Experts in the field say as many as 150,000 U.S. citizens underwent medical treatment abroad in 2006 — the majority in Asia and Latin America. That number grew to an estimated 750,000 in 2007 and could reach as high as 6 million by 2010. Patients are packing suitcases and boarding planes for everything from face lifts to heart bypasses to fertility treatments.
People have been traveling for centuries in the name of health, from ancient Greeks and Egyptians who flocked to hot springs and baths, to 18th and 19th century Europeans and Americans who journeyed to spas and remote retreats hoping to cure ailments like tuberculosis. But surgery abroad is a fairly modern phenomenon. As health costs rose in the 1980s and 1990s, patients looking for affordable options started considering their options offshore. So-called "tooth tourism" grew quickly, with Americans traveling to Mexico for dental bridges and caps not covered by their insurance. (A large percentage of today's medical tourism is for dental work, as much as 40% by some estimates.)
Many U.S. doctors and dentists were appalled at the idea of their patients turning to foreign hospitals for care that they considered dangerously cheap. But where many U.S. medical professionals saw great peril, countries like Cuba saw opportunities. Beginning in the late 1980s, the island country started programs to lure foreigners from India, Latin America and Europe for eye surgeries, heart procedures and cosmetic procedures. The Cuban government said it welcomed 22,000 medical tourists in 1998.
In recent years, companies all over the U.S. have sprung up to guide Americans through the insurance and logistical hurdles of surgery abroad, including many in U.S. border states affiliated with medical facilities in Mexico.
7 Reasons to Consider Traveling for Medical Care
Medical tourists have different reasons for traveling abroad for care. Here's why they do it
By Josef Woodman – US NEWS & WORLD REPORT
October 1, 2008
This article is based on excerpts from the second edition of Patients Beyond Borders (2008), the flagship of a landmark series of consumer guides to international medical travel that have helped thousands of patients plan successful health journeys abroad.
The new phenomenon of medical tourism—or international health travel—has received a good deal of wide-eyed attention of late. The author writes: “My research, including countless interviews, has convinced me: With diligence, perseverance, and good information, patients considering traveling abroad for treatment do indeed have legitimate, safe choices, not to mention an opportunity to save thousands of dollars over the same treatment in the United States. Hundreds of patients who have returned from successful treatment overseas provide overwhelmingly positive feedback. They persuaded me to write this impartial, scrutinizing guide to becoming an informed international patient. I designed this book to help readers reach their own conclusions about whether and when to seek treatment abroad.”
So, why go abroad for medical care? Here are seven reasons.
- 1. Cost savings. Most people like to get the most for their dollar. The single biggest reason Americans travel to other countries for medical treatment is the opportunity to save money. Depending upon the country and type of treatment, uninsured and underinsured patients, as well as those seeking elective care, can realize 15 to 85 percent savings over the cost of treatment in the United States. Or, as one successful health traveler put it, "I took out my credit card instead of a second mortgage on my home."
- 2. Better-quality care. Veteran health travelers know that facilities, instrumentation, and customer service in treatment centers abroad often equal or exceed those found in the United States. Moreover, physicians and staff in treatment centers abroad are often far more accessible than their U.S. counterparts. "My surgeon gave me his cell phone number, and I spoke directly with him at least a dozen times during my stay," said David P., who traveled offshore for a heart valve replacement.
- 3. Excluded treatments. Your health insurance plan probably excludes a variety of treatments, such as cosmetic surgeries, dental care, vision treatments, certain nonemergency cardiovascular and orthopedic surgeries, weight loss programs, and prosthetics—to name only a few. In addition, many policies place restrictions on prescriptions (some quite expensive), postoperative care, congenital disorders, and pre-existing conditions. Confronting increasingly expensive choices at home, nearly 40 percent of American health travelers hit the road for elective treatments.
- 4. Specialty treatments. Some procedures and prescriptions are simply not allowed in this country. Either Congress or the Food and Drug Administration has specifically disallowed a certain treatment, or perhaps it's still in the testing and clinical trials stage or was only recently approved. Such treatments are often offered abroad. One example is an orthopedic procedure known as hip resurfacing, a less expensive alternative to the traditional hip replacement still practiced in the United States.
- 5. Shorter waiting periods. For decades, thousands of Canadian and British subscribers to universal, "free" healthcare plans have endured waits as long as two years for established procedures. "Some of us die before we get to the operating table," commented one exasperated patient, who journeyed to Mexico for an open-heart procedure. Here in the United States, long waits are a growing problem, particularly among war veterans covered under the Veterans Administration Act, for whom long queues are becoming far too common. Some patients figure it's better to pay out of pocket to get out of pain or to halt a deteriorating condition than to suffer the anxiety and frustration of waiting for a far-future appointment and other medical uncertainties.
- 6. More "inpatient friendly." As U.S. health insurance companies apply increasing pressure on hospitals to process patients as quickly as possible, outpatient procedures are becoming the norm. Similarly, U.S. hospitals are under huge pressure to move inpatients out of those costly beds as soon as possible. Patient-to-staff ratios are usually lower abroad, as are hospital-borne infection rates.
- 7. The lure of the new and different. Although traveling abroad for medical care can be challenging, many patients welcome the chance to blaze a trail, and they find the creature comforts often offered abroad a welcome relief from the sterile, impersonal hospital environments so often encountered in U.S. treatment centers. For others, simply being in a new and interesting culture lends distraction to an otherwise worrisome, tedious process. What's more, travel—and particularly international travel—can be a life-changing experience. You might be wowed by the sheer beauty of the mountain range or sea view outside a clinic in Mexico. As one veteran medical traveler put it, "I brought back far more from this trip than a new set of teeth."