Rising Costs, Long Wait Times and Other Major Problems Dispel Myths about American Healthcare

Why Americans Are Flocking to the Best Hospitals in India for Heart and Eye Care

For too long, American health authorities have propagated a set of myths about the country’s healthcare system – that American healthcare is the best in the world, that people from other countries flock to the US for health care, that health care is assured to every American regardless of whether he is insured or not…. But the troubling fact of rising costs and the isolation of millions of uninsured Americans from access to affordable medical care point to major problems in the American healthcare system.  It’s exactly this lack of affordable care that leads thousands of Americans to pack a bag and hop on a plane to India or Thailand every year.  The more cost effective health care options available in Asia range from plastic surgery at Bangkok clinics to Lasik eye surgery at some of the best hospitals in India for eye care.  These same offerings are not available at comparable prices in the US, as evidenced by Michael Moore’s hit movie, Sicko. 

It’s Not Just Rising Costs; Other Major Problems Also Plague Western Health Care

While in the US, uninsured Americans who need expensive life saving procedures are faced with a choice between debt and death, in the UK it’s the ridiculously long wait times for medical treatment that are the reason why tourism for affordable health care has caught on the way it has.  Red tape is also another major factor.  For example, the newer less invasive hip resurfacing procedures that Indian hospitals specialize in are not yet a common procedure in American and British hospitals.  Similarly, more advanced and customized Lasik surgery procedures called Zypotix are routinely performed at the best hospitals in India for eye care.  It’s not just the affordable healthcare that’s responsible for this growing trend of traveling for medical care; it’s the shorter wait times, the more sophisticated and advanced procedures, and the personalized attention offered at these health centers that make medical tourism such a viable option.