Currently medical tourists or medical travelers from developed industrialized countries are traveling in large numbers abroad where the quality of healthcare is equal to or even better than the standards in their own country and yet the cost is significantly lower. These healthcare destination countries also offer numerous options for escapes to vacation touring trips; sight-seeing, shopping, exploring journeys and lounging on sun drenched exotic beaches for medical health care travelers. Factors that have led to the increasing popularity of medical travel are as follows: -
Ø The high cost of health care
Ø Long wait times for certain procedures
Ø The ease and affordability of international travel
Ø Improvements in both technology and standards of care in many countries.
Medical tourists can come from anywhere in the First World, including Europe, the Middle East, Japan, the United States, and Canada. This is because of their large populations, comparatively high wealth, the high expense of health care or lack of health care options locally, and increasingly high expectations of their populations with respect to health care. An authority at the Harvard Business School recently stated that "medical tourism is promoted much more heavily in theUnited Kingdom than in the United States".
A forecast by Deloitte Consulting published in August 2008 projected that medical tourism originating in the US could jump by a factor of ten over the next decade. An estimated 750,000 Americans went abroad for health care in 2007, and the report estimated that a million and a half would seek health care outside the US in 2008. The growth in medical tourism has the potential to cost US health care providers billions of dollars in lost revenue.
Ø Those who want urgent surgery
A large draw to medical travel is convenience and speed. Countries that operate public health-care systems are often so taxed that it can take considerable time to get non-urgent medical care. Using Canada as an example, an estimated 782,936 Canadians spent time on medical waiting lists in 2005, waiting an average of 9.4 weeks. Canada has set waiting-time benchmarks, e. g. 26 weeks for a hip replacement and 16 weeks for cataract surgery, for non-urgent medical procedures.
Ø Those who want elective Surgery
Additionally, patients are finding that insurance either does not cover orthopedic surgery (such as knee/hip replacement) or imposes unreasonable restrictions on the choice of the facility, surgeon, or prosthetics to be used. Medical tourism for knee/hip replacements has emerged as one of the more widely accepted procedures because of the lower cost and minimal difficulties associated with the traveling to/from the surgery. Colombia provides a knee replacement for about $5,000 USD, including all associated fees, such as FDA-approved prosthetics and hospital stay-over expenses. However, many clinics quote prices that are not all inclusive and include only the surgeon fees associated with the procedure.
Ø Those who are uninsured
According to an article by the University of Delaware publication, UDaily:
The cost of surgery in India, Thailand or South Africa can be one-tenth of what it is in the United States or Western Europe, and sometimes even less. A heart-valve replacement that would cost $200,000 or more in the US, for example, goes for $10,000 in India--and that includes round-trip airfare and a brief vacation package. Similarly, a metal-free dental bridge worth $5,500 in the US costs $500 in India, a knee replacement in Thailand with six days of physical therapy costs about one-fifth of what it would in the States, and Lasik eye surgery worth $3,700 in the US is available in many other countries for only $730. Cosmetic surgery savings are even greater: A full facelift that would cost $20,000 in the US runs about $1,250 in South Africa.
Popular medical travel worldwide destinations include: Argentina, Brunei, Cuba, Colombia, Costa Rica, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Jordan, Lithuania, Malaysia, The Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, and recently, Saudi Arabia, UAE, South Korea, Tunisia and New Zealand.
Popular cosmetic surgery travel destinations include: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico and Turkey. In South America, countries such as Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Colombia lead on plastic surgery medical skills relying on their experienced plastic surgeons. In Bolivia and Colombia, plastic surgery has also become quite common. According to the "Sociedad Boliviana de Cirugia Plastica y Reconstructiva", more than 70% of middle and upper class women in the country have had some form of plastic surgery. Colombia also provides advanced care in cardiovascular and transplant surgery.
A specialized subset of medical tourism is reproductive tourism and reproductive outsourcing, which is the practice of traveling abroad to undergo in-vitro fertilization, surrogate pregnancy and other assisted reproductive technology treatments including freezing embryos for retro-production.
Ø The person seeking medical treatment abroad contacts a medical tourism provider for example Karmal.
Ø The provider usually requires the patient to register and provide a medical report, including the nature of ailment, local doctor’s opinion, medical history, and diagnosis, and may request additional information.
Ø The approximate expenditure, choice of hospitals and tourist destinations, and duration of stay, etc., is discussed.
Ø After signing consent bonds and agreements, the patient is given recommendation letters for a medical visa, to be procured from the concerned embassy.
Ø The patient travels to the destination country, where the medical tourism provider assigns a case executive, who takes care of the patient's accommodation, treatment and any other form of care.
Ø Once the treatment is done, the patient can remain in the tourist destination or return home.
Karmal lists the best qualified; well experienced, licensed, board certified and reputed doctors in their respective specialists, preferably, with an international exposure of medical practice or training. You can always ask for and review your doctor’s resume and make as many as pre treatment enquiries and that you feel are necessary before making your best knowledgeable decision. Karmal lists and work only with Government registered, world class medical centers, you can review the details of the medical centers listed and any question regarding the service can be ask prior to the treatment. Also, our Healthcare Executives will be in touch with you 24*7 as soon as you registered with us. Hence Karmal provide best of the best Healthcare facilities, which you can trust undoubtedly.
We do not work on behalf of or promote any particular Healthcare provider, Hospital or institutions. Our aim is to look after the best interest of prospective recipient of healthcare and provide the best resource at world class medical facilities at fraction of the cost in developed nations such as US/UK.
We are team of medical practioners, technocrats and administrators who have come together in Karmal to look after the best interest of prospective recipient of healthcare from any part of the world.
As a policy, we do not promote any particular institution or hospital in any country. We believe that an institution or a specialist can be best in some disciplines and only good in others. We go for the best and achieve this by offering the best resource in the country meeting the specific requirements of our client. This policy also reflects in our Patient’s Views, who got their treatment done by Karmal only.
Best care and personal attention from qualified, dedicated, professional and trained team at Karmal and its network partners.
Most competitive medical packages with our network hospitals. For equivalent standards and quality, Indian costs could be as low as 25% of what one may spend in their own country, especially in the western part of the world and America.
Priority and personalized services at Hospitals, Medical Centres & with our other network partners.
Best and most economical hospitality/travel/tourism service by our network partners
Medical Tourism is the concept of traveling to a particular destination to avail the opportunity of the world class Healthcare services offered by the best experienced Healthcare professionals with the help of Medical tourism Providers such asKarmal. These medical services are provided at the technologically most advanced medical facilities in complete privacy and for affordable costs. The Healthcare procedure is usually combined with a family vacation.
The World Tourism Organization includes the following in its definition of medical tourism: medical care, sickness and well-being, rehabilitation and recuperation. So Medical Tourism in simple worlds means “getting high quality medical services in very less affordable rates, plus a chance to visit and tour in foreign nation”.