Medical Tourism – Reasons Why It Is Catching Up in the US
The cost of healthcare is becoming increasingly difficult to afford in the US and that is the reason why patients are looking at options such as medical tourism to save precious dollars. It is perfectly alright for patients to get their cosmetic treatment or dental surgery done in a developing country which has fantastic medical facilities available but at a significantly lower cost.
As traveling across the world becomes easier and popular, it has given an unexpected but welcome fillip to the concept of medical tourism which is not exactly a new concept. With the reach of the internet, people are traveling more frequently. Patients have woken up to the fact that traveling to distant countries to get treated for ailments is becoming cheaper than. There is no compromise on the quality of medical treatment available in developing countries.
A flight out of the US to South America takes just four hours and they fall within the same time zone. However, the medical facilities here are available at much cheaper rates and hence can be afforded by most patients. They are also not inconvenienced as they would have been on long haul flights, often risking thrombosis and other health risks associated with long distance flying.
South America has some of the best hospitals and healthcare facilities which are accredited and use the latest equipment and cutting edge technology to deliver the best medical care for a variety of medical disorders. The same treatment is expensive by thousands of dollars in the US which is the reason why medical tourism is fast becoming popular and used by many Americans.
People often have to pay through their nose for healthcare procedures because of the huge costs. This is more so in cases of cosmetic surgeries and cosmetic dental procedures which are not covered by insurance. Those traveling to South American countries can potentially save anywhere from 50 to 80 percent depending on the place where they are taking the treatment from.
Medical tourism helps patients cover the costs of their treatment from their health saving account. Countries such as Brazil, Costa Rica or Argentina have highly developed medical facilities and can help patients save handsomely on procedures such as face lift and cosmetic surgery. In-vitro fertilization is another medical procedure that many prefer getting done in South America because they are prohibitively expensive in the US.
The spin-off as a result of increased traffic to these countries is the improved business in the real estate sectors.