| Medical tourism, also known as travel or health | | | | replacement in Thailand with six days of physical |
| tourism, is popularized widely by travel agencies and | | | | therapy costs about one-fifth of what it would in the |
| mass media to provide a back-up for today's rapidly | | | | States, and Lasik eye surgery worth $3,700 in the |
| growing trends of traveling to different countries to | | | | U.S. is available in many other countries for only $730. |
| get cheaper and modern health-care facilities. | | | | Cosmetic surgery savings are even greater. A full |
| Report shows that medical tourists are traveling | | | | face-lift that would cost $20,000 in the U.S. runs |
| largely from U.S., Europe, U.K., Canada, Middle East, | | | | about $3,000 in Cuba, $2,700 in the Philippines or |
| Japan because of their expensive health-care system | | | | $2,500 in South Africa or $2,300 in Bolivia. Medical |
| or lack of health-care options locally. It's been | | | | tourism has got momentum in India as some of the |
| established now that due to a sort of lengthy | | | | U.S. firms prescribe India for health-care. News goes |
| procedures for some of complicated illness, such as a | | | | around just like that get a new knee or hip at a |
| hip replacement, patients have to wait several | | | | discount,take a companion along for free plus pocket |
| months in U.K. or Canada. Whereas the same | | | | some of the money saved on the operation.Thats |
| procedures may be started-off immediately just | | | | the kind of incentive some U.S. companies are |
| after their arrival at in countries like India, Singapore, | | | | offering employees who travels to India for |
| Hong Kong, Thailand, Colombia, Philippines etc. In | | | | health-care. |
| Colombia, the cost of knee replacement comes | | | | Although individual foreign patients have been coming |
| around $5000 USD including all associated fees. | | | | to India for quite some time now, this kind of |
| According to research found in an article by the | | | | initiatives open up the floodgates of new wave of |
| University of Delaware publication-the cost of surgery | | | | medical tourism. Blue Ridge Paper Products,a North |
| in Argentina, Cuba, India, Bolivia, Thailand, Colombia, | | | | Carolina based company, looking for outsourcing of |
| Philippines or South Africa can be one-tenth of what | | | | its 2,000 employees to save up substantially as the |
| it is in the United States or Western Europe, and | | | | cost of treatment in India is 80-90% less than in the |
| sometimes even less. | | | | U.S. |
| A heart-valve replacement that would cost $200,000 | | | | Here's the sheer economics at work where Blue |
| or more in the U.S., for example, goes for $10,000 in | | | | Ridge plans to pay all the travel, lodging, meals, etc. |
| Philippines and India-and that includes round-trip airfare | | | | for the patient and one family member, plus give up |
| and a brief vacation package.Similarly, a metal-free | | | | to 25% savings and they tied up reputed hospitals |
| dental bridge worth $5,500 in the U.S.costs $500 in | | | | such as Apollo, Wockhardt, Escorts. |
| India or Bolivia and only $200 in the Philippines, a knee | | | | |