Health Tourism in India

The high cost of health care in the United States and medical waiting lists in other parts of the world have lead to a burgeoning new phenomenon in India: health tourism. Many patients find that, even factoring in the cost of travel and hotel stays, they can have medical procedures performed sooner and less expensively overseas than at home. India has many world-class hospitals that are eager to attract foreign business.

Procedures

• The most popular procedures that foreign citizens seek to have performed in India are non-emergency surgeries such as joint replacements, or elective procedures such as cosmetic surgery or corrective eye surgery. Cardiac surgery, including bypass procedures and valve replacement, is also routinely performed in India, as is bone marrow transplant. Alternative medicine such as Ayurveda is highly sought after.

Reasons

• Potential health tourists include those in the United States who lack insurance coverage and who might have to pay out-of-pocket for expensive surgeries. Some people in countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom use health tourism as a way to bypass lengthy waiting lists for procedures under their own health systems. Many patients choose India, rather than other low cost countries because of India's reputation for quality medical treatment, and because English is widely spoken.

Costs

• Typical costs for procedures in India are far lower than that in Western countries. Cardiac surgery in particular can be one-tenth of the price for the same procedure in the United States.

Growth

• According to Assocham, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India, the monetary value of health tourism in the country is expected to grow by 30 percent per year through 2015. This would make it a $2 billion industry. In 2008, around 150,000 foreigners came to India for treatment, and Assocham projects that figure will continue to grow by up to 25 percent each year.

Providers

• Many agencies have sprung up to profit from this new industry. Medical tour operators will place potential patients with health care providers and surgeons in India, and also arrange all the necessary flights and accommodations as a package deal, and sometimes provide a post-operative vacation as well. About a half dozen medical corporations are in India now, the largest of which is Apollo Hospital Enterprises, based in the southern city of Chennai.

Controversies

• Some U.S. employers have begun offering employees the option of traveling to India to have medical procedures performed as a way to lower health insurance costs. Some U.S. health insurers themselves have also negotiated links with medical providers in India, and offer some of their enrollees this service. This has left some in the U.S. medical community uneasy about the potential effects of competition from overseas. Unresolved questions remain about patients' legal standing if a procedure goes wrong. Within India, the medical tourism industry is sometimes criticized for treating rich Westerners while ignoring poor Indians who desperately need medical treatment but can't afford it.