The fastest growing segment of the population is those over the age of 100-Centenarians. Of every person who has lived to be 65 from the beginning of recorded history, two-thirds are alive today. All this longevity is costing a fortune in health care. One possible antidote for our beleaguered system is Medical Tourism – going across a border for medical care.

You may be a medical tourist without knowing it. I am. I traveled to Wills Eye in Pennsylvania to have a tear duct procedure. That counts as Medical Tourism, as does going for plastic surgery to Germany, dentistry to Hungary or a kidney transplant to Korea.

CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE IN MEDICINE ARE SPRINGING UP ALL OVER THE WORLD

U.S. health care organizations participating in some of the better-known international collaborations involving medical tourism are Cleveland Clinic, Cornell Medical School, Duke Medical School, Harvard Medical International, Johns Hopkins International, Memorial Sloan Kettering, University of Pittsburgh, and Columbia University Medical School. (Medical Tourism, Update and Implications, 2009 6/16, a product of The Deloitte Center for Health Solutions).

BOOMERS ARE THE NUMBER ONE TARGET OF MEDICAL TOURISM FOR SOME OBVIOUS REASONS

Boomers are increasingly engaged in their own healthcare. Edelman Report, 2010.
Boomers cannot afford US healthcare. The American Health Association released a report in 2007 entitled, “When I’m 64: How Boomers Will Change Healthcare.”
Boomers will require extensive treatment: six out of every ten Baby Boomers will be dealing with more than one chronic condition; more than one out of every three will be obese; and one out of four will be living with diabetes.
Boomers will account for four out of ten of the one billion doctor visits by 2020.
Boomers will increasingly retire abroad.
One third of Amercian software industry workers are slated to lose their jobs in the next 6 years. It takes boomers 100% longer to find a new job if excessed. Large self-insured companies like AT&T, John Deere and Caterpillar may opt to pay the penalty and not provide insurance to their employees (National Association of Health Underwriters—Member Report)

IS MEDICAL TOURISM RIGHT FOR YOU?

Do you feel positive about it?

• CostNeed for Care
• High Grade Experience
• Panache
• Quality of Care
• Growing Familiarity
• Necessity

Negative?

• Fear
• Mistrust
• Unfamiliarity
• Peer Concern
• Skepticism
• Terrorism/Unrest
• Cost
• Discretionary

Do you see yourself in any of the following statistics and statements?

• The prolonged U.S. recession has had a significant impact on patients’ ability to afford medical care19 and, by extension, their use of medical tourism. A 2008 study reported that 22 percent of adults reduced the number of times they visited their physician and 11 percent cut back on the number of prescription drugs they took.20   A later poll found that up to 36 percent of respondents reported putting off needed medical care.
• The number of physician visits in the U.S. has declined from 2006 to 2008 by nearly 70,000 per month. Increasing unemployment has likely contributed to the growing number of uninsured in the U.S. Concurrently the cost of medical care has not declined in proportion to the decrease in consumers’ incomes, savings and investments.
• Patients must either decrease the amount of care they receive or look for more cost-effective alternatives. In addition, transportation costs have risen significantly compared to a year ago; this may be contributing to the decline in U.S. patients traveling for care and the rate at which foreigners are traveling to the U.S. for medical services.

Let’s hear from you and your take on Medical tourism with your opinions and experiences.