Medical Vacation Packages Abroad: The Future of American Health Care

Overseas Medical Vacation: Financially Viable

Middle-class Americans are taking medical vacation trips to destinations like India, Thailand, or Singapore, not just for elective surgery, but also for life-saving and life-enhancing procedures.  They can receive coronary bypasses at the best hospitals for heart care in India, hip replacement surgeries at the best clinics in Thailand, or spinal treatments at the best centers in Singapore.  The rising costs of the US healthcare system have created a generation of “medical refugees” who travel abroad for surgery.

Medical Tourism (India): Efficiency plus Affordability

The less expensive quality procedures available encourage more and more Americans to take a medical vacation to foreign destinations.  Vishal Bali, CEO of Wockhardt Hospitals Group Mumbai, reports a 45% increase in the number of American patients who have visited his 10 Indian hospitals in the past 2 years.  The reasons are twofold.  First, a coronary bypass at the best hospitals for heart care in India costs $6,000 to $8000, and a joint replacement or hip resurfacing procedure costs about $6,500; a mere fraction of what an American would pay back home.  Second, Indian physicians are some of the best educated practitioners in the field.

Medical Vacation: Credible and Cost-Effective

The international affiliate of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has certified the Wockhardt Group, thus putting a stamp of approval on their credibility.  Medical tourism is also bolstered by the fact that the best hospitals for heart care in India report a gross mortality rate of less than 1%, which is lower than many top hospitals in the US.

Offshore Medical Vacation: Wake-Up Call for America

America needs to reverse the offshore medical vacation trend and improve the quality, efficiency, and affordability of its healthcare.  That American healthcare is the best in the world is a fast vanishing myth.  Universal coverage is the need of the hour with adequate medical benefits its people can afford.

Source: Rick Ansorge, “More Americans Seeking Surgery Abroad,” The New England Journal of Medicine, October 19, 2006.