Medical Travel
What if you have a disease and you need to undergo surgery which is not available in your own country? What would be the solution for those kinds of problem? My dad who is a doctor told me that if there are cases like that, doctor’s advice their patients to do “medical tourism”. What is medical tourism? Since this involves traveling and having the surgery abroad, will it be more expensive? And most of all, is it safe? These are the questions that we’ll find out later in this topic. Let’s start first about the definition of it and its history.
According to “Wikipedia”, “Medical tourism (also called medical travel, health tourism or global healthcare) is a term initially coined by travel agencies and the mass media to describe the rapidly-growing practice of traveling across international borders to obtain health care. It also refers pejoratively to the practice of healthcare providers traveling internationally to deliver healthcare.” This simply means the practice of traveling abroad to receive medical procedures. It’s history took place a thousand years ago when Greek pilgrims traveled from all over the Mediterranean to the small territory in the Saronic Gulf called Epidauria. This territory was the sanctuary of the healing god Asklepios. Epidauria became the original travel destination for medical tourism.
Medical tourism has been known and practiced in Europe and in Asia but it is still new in America. However, medical companies see groups of North Americans who are most interested in medical tourism and the cost savings that it provides. Those are the uninsured and the insured people living in the US, Canadians who are enduring long wait lists for many popular surgeries, and Americans who are seeking elective cosmetic and/or dental surgery. Will it save you money if you do medical tourism? The answer for that is yes. The cost is low if you will compare the price of having the surgery in the US. According to “Mike Adams, the Health Ranger”, “when you combine these two savings – the paperwork shuffling reduction and the medical malpractice lawsuits – you get an incredible deal for your dollar.”
Lastly, is it safe? It will be if you will follow the legal process for medical tourism which is the person seeking medical treatment abroad contacts a medical tourism provider. The provider will ask for some requirements from the patient and once approved certified medical doctors or consultants then advise on the medical treatment. Both the patient and the provider discuss about the things that they will need like the hospitals to stay in and other important matters. After the patient signs a consent bonds and agreement, he or she will travel to the destination country where an assigned case executive will take care of the patient’s accommodations and the proper treatment and any other form of care. Once the treatment is done, the patient can remain in the tourist destination or return home.
