Healthcare costs in US are rising at an alarming rate every year. Expenses for surgeries are a cause of even greater concern. Even simple surgeries carried out in US can cost quite a lot, and expenses for complex surgeries are skyrocketing at an alarming rate. To add to the concern, most surgeries are not covered by medical insurance packages. Hence patients are forced to pay for those surgeries out of their own pockets, even after paying the huge premiums for health insurance every year.

This has led to the rise in the number of patients opting for getting their surgeries done abroad. Asian countries like India, China, Philippines, Hong Kong, and South American countries like Brazil, Bolivia, and Colombia are fast becoming highly favored destinations for patients from US. The cost of surgeries carried out in these countries is much less than those carried out in the US. Besides, in US, much of healthcare is subsidized by the Government. Thus people opting for subsidized healthcare may have to wait for extended periods of time. For instance, a man opting for a hip replacement surgery may even have to wait for over a year, because his case cannot be attended by doctors till they have cleared the queue of around 2,000 patients on the waiting list. On the other hand, this is almost never a concern for people traveling to foreign countries for surgeries. A person can have his/ her surgery done on the very next day after arrival.

The facilities for surgeries in developing countries were considered to be of poor standard compared to those in US for many years. But the recent times have brought about a complete change in the scenario. Thousands of happy patients have commented that the medical facilities in the Asian and South American countries at times even surpass those in US based healthcare facilities.

Insurance coverage for surgeries carried out in foreign countries is still not supported by many US based insurance companies. But patients do not seem to mind, because the cost is often so low that it is very easy for them to get those done with out-of-pocket expense itself. Thus they do not seem to care that they do not have insurance for the surgeries. They go ahead and get it done anyway. This has led to the rise of many countries in Asia and South America as “medical hubs” for the rest of the world, while the number of patients opting for surgeries within homeland is steadily decreasing.

By: Melville Jackson

In july 2005, Trendwest Resort, Inc announced their plan of adding another resort to its list of the many time share resorts. The time share project will be called ‘worldmark Anaheim’ and will be built at Katella Avenue, Anaheim California.

This is the fourteenth resort to be built in California under the worldmark group of trendwest time shares. This hotel will have 14 stories and will be located in the center of Anaheim.

There are many attractions near Anaheim. This is the city that contains Disney land and people from world over visit this city throughout the year. This is a great location to start a time share project and the time share investors and share holders are simply thrilled with this new project.

The 253-unit resort hotel will be offered as a trendwest time share to the public. The time share investors can buy first class, fully furnished vacation condominiums in 1,2 or 3 bedrooms. There are 12 polished and ritzy presidential suits for those Trendwest investors who wish to live a luxurious life.

All the 253 units in the worldmark Anaheim will have a kitchen, with a complete set of electric gadgets, television, smoke vents, dining table with a two door refrigerator, private balconies, well lit and spacious living areas, and home equipment such as dryer plus washer, DVD player, surround speaker system and television.

There are a number of amenities that the share owners can enjoy: outdoor swimming pool, children’s pool, exercise or gym facility, oversized spas, female and male saunas and game room.

The deck on the rooftop has three spas in which one can have a relaxing backrub, sunbathe on any of the 5 comfortable cabanas and avail other relaxing facilities. The rooftop deck is most romantic at night. The display of Disney land’s fireworks at night can be viewed from here.

The construction of WorldMark Anaheim began in January 26th. It is due to open in early 2008.

Every year, the estimated sales of the industry are around 9 million dollars and this estimate includes only around five thousand time share resorts in the world. Currently time shares has gone global in trade. Time shares movement is fluid.

Trendwest resorts has been part of time share industry for a long time. It has Worldmark resorts in the US, Mexico, British Colombia, and Fiji and can be called the leader in vacation industry.

You might want to consider investing and owning a unit of time share resorts to make yourself a part of the time share industry. These are your options:

i) Use of time share week. A share is generally incremented into weeks. Every year, Time share owners might want to use their share once.

ii) Time share rental. Time share rental frequency has increased due to requirement of accommodation for adventurers and travelers. Businessmen who own time shares but don’t always need them can make use of this opportunity.

iii) Time shares as gifts. Gifting a Trendwest time share is a great way of showing you care.

iv) Time share exchanges. This is the latest observed trend in the market. There are two ways for the exchange:

a. Internal exchange
Here, the time share owners owning shares of a common resort can exchange shares under an umbrella group that is common.

b. External exchange
Trendwest time share owners can now exchange time shares with all other owners of time share resorts world over.

Presently, two exchange agencies are available for the time share owners. They are the Interval International (II) and the Resort Condominiums International (RCI).

By: Abhishek Agarwal