Tuesday, November 04, 2008 Malilong: Medical tourism By Frank Malilong The Other Side
BACK in the ‘80s when the US still had a consulate in Cebu, I interceded for a doctor friend who wanted to go to New York to join his ailing wife but couldn’t obtain a visa. “Why don’t you advise your friend to ask his wife to obtain medical care in your country,” the consul told me. “Your hospitals are just as good and your doctors as competent.”
I thought that he was joking or was simply not inclined to grant a visa (he eventually did, no thanks to my feeble attempt at friendly persuasion) and told him so. The consul smiled.
Many Filipinos continue to seek medical treatment in the US until now, the latest and most prominent being Mayor Tomas Osmeña. What we do not know is that a growing number of American patients are getting medical care elsewhere. The consul, who I can remember only by his first name (Frank), was right: the best medical care is not necessarily available in America only.
A recent report in the Los Angeles Times revealed that last year alone, about 750,000 American patients traveled abroad to get medical care. The number is estimated to rise to six million in 2010, the Times said, quoting the Deloitte Center for Health Services, a Washington-based research center which also predicted that15 years from now, the practice is going to be “pretty much routine.”
The prohibitive cost of health care in the US is the single biggest factor for this reversal. The Times story cited the case of Andy Dijak, a creative director of an entertainment company, who injured his right knee while playing tennis and was told that he had to spend between $12,000 to $15,000 to repair the torn cartilage. He went to a hospital in Monterrey, Mexico where he underwent exactly the same procedure for only $4,500 including air fare.
A heart bypass surgery, said the report, can cost more than $100,000 in the US but is available for less than $10,000 in India’s hospitals, “whose success rates rivals those found in the US and Europe.”
“The rising prosperity in many parts of the developing world is luring foreign-born, US-educated doctors to come home to practice in modern hospitals catering to increasingly affluent consumers,” according to the Times.
And they are not expensive, said the paper, because the cost of living is comparatively lower, malpractice insurance cheaper and litigation awards significantly smaller.
Some of the best doctors in America are Filipinos or so we claim. However, nowhere in the Times report is there any mention of the Philippines as destination for American patients. This is not a knock on the quality of our hospitals and the competence of our practitioners, I’m sure. Just wait for 15 more years. That’s how long our lag is.
