Why Cross Borders for Medical Care?

Why Cross Borders for Medical Care?

COST SAVINGS
Depending upon the country and type of treatment, uninsured and underinsured patients as well as those seeking elective care can save 15-85 percent of the cost of treatment in their home country.
For example, a knee surgery that costs $43,000 in the US may cost (depending on the doctors and facilities) US $12,000 in Korea, including the hospital stay.

BETTER QUALITY CARE
Veteran health travelers know that facilities, instrumentation, and customer service in treatment centers abroad often equal or exceed those found in their own country.

EXCLUDED TREATMENTS
Many people don't have health insurance. Even if you do, your policy may exclude a variety of conditions and treatments. You, the policyholder, must pay these expenses out-of-pocket.

SPECIALTY TREATMENTS
Some procedures not available in your home country are available abroad. Some procedures that are widely practiced in certain parts of the world have not yet been approved in others, or they have been approved so recently that their availability remains spotty.

SHORTER WAITING PERIODS
For decades, thousands of Canadian and British subscribers to universal, "free" healthcare plans have endured waits as long as two years for established procedures. Some patients figure it's better to pay out-of-packet to get out of pain or halt deteriorating condition than to suffer the anxiety and frustration of waiting for a far-future appointment and other medical uncertainties.

More "INPATIENT-FRIENDLY"
As health insurance companies apply increasing pressure on hospitals to move patients out of those costly beds as quickly as possible, outpatient procedures are becoming the norm. Medical travelers will welcome the flexibility at Korea's best hospitals, where patients are often aggressively encouraged to spend extra time in the hospital post-porcedure. Staff-to-patient ratios are usually higher abroad, while hospital-borne infection rates are often lower.

The LURE of the NEW and DIFFERENT
Although traveling abroad for medical care can often be challenging, many patients welcome the chance to blaze a trail, and they find the creature comforts often offered abroad to be a welcome relief from the sterile, impersonal hospital environments so frequently encountered at home.



Article from ,Korea Edition, written by Josef Woodman.