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