Medical Tourism Thrives

Traveling to countries throughout the Far East and Latin America, first world patients are able to receive comparable treatments at a fraction of the cost, even after travel expenses are taken into account, says the New Yorker.

Traveling to countries throughout the Far East and Latin America, first world patients are able to receive comparable treatments at a fraction of the cost, even after travel expenses are taken into account, says the New Yorker.

• The Bumrungrad hospital in Thailand treats 400,000 foreign patients annually.
• Similarly, Malaysia had almost 600,000 medical tourists last year.
• South Korea had more than 100,000, nearly a third of them American.
• Mexico and Costa Rica have also become popular destinations.

This growing trend defies conventional wisdom regarding medical care – that it was not a sector that could cross borders. Yet large differentials in operation costs between countries, even those across the world from each other, are too tempting for those willing to bear the inherent risks.

Full article in The New Yorker worth reading.