Medical tourism growing fast

Medical tourism, already a big industry, is on the cusp of really taking off.

Just a few minutes ago, David Williams, a medical tourism consultant in Massachusetts, opened the Health Care Globalization Summit here is Las Vegas with an overview of the industry and made a few predictions of where it's headed.

U.S. medical insurance companies, he said, will start providing medical tourism policies later this year. Small and medium-sized forms will likely be first, offering policies to the millions of Americans with no health insurance. With U.S. health costs so hight, they simply can't afford the insurance. With medical tourism offering care at 10 to 25 per cent of the cost, some of those people might now be able to afford insurance. "These are really people on the cusp" of affording health insurance, he said.

Insurance companies providing coverage will bring a lot more people into the market, he said. And, as I posted earlier, an expanding market could bring costs down even more.

Williams also predicted that within two years U.S. state and federal government agencies will start offering medical tourism to their employees as a way to keep costs down - which will be another huge boost to the industry.

Already, however, the industry is mature enough that the destinations involved are beginning to specialize - Latin America is doing mostly cosmetic surgery and dental work, the Philippines is focusing on wellness care, South Korea is targeting the Chinese, Japanese and U.S. markets, Singapore is focused on high-end "concierge" service, while India is a high-volume destination.

India, Williams said, is the only destination with the capacity to handle the bulk of medical tourism business that he sees coming in the next few years.