When Bangladeshis check into Indian hospitals, or Indonesians into Singapore’s, they’re looking for better medical treatment and facilities they don’t have at home. When American or European patients travel to Asia, they’re seeking quality treatment at cheaper costs. Both these factors are behind the rise in recent years of international medical tourism that’s predicted to grow into a swell.
The global medical tourism market was said to be about $20 billion in 2005. The US-based Medical Tourism Association believes it will be $100 billion by 2012. Even if one believes the figure is somewhat optimistic, wondering if, for example, it includes money tourists spend on buying their medicines while on tour, it gives a good enough idea of the boom behind the business. And Asia, one of its biggest beneficiaries, is getting ready to make even more of it.
The ambition isn’t at all misplaced. While Asia still has countries that aren’t medically developed, it has others, like China, India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand, where private specialty healthcare facilities and standards are among the best anywhere. It’s no surprise, therefore, that an increasing number of medical tourists, from both inside and outside the region, are flying to these pockets of excellence to get quality treatment at costs that aren’t prohibitive for some (for example, patients from Bangladesh to India or Indonesia to Singapore) or darned cheap, almost 75 to 80 per cent cheaper, for others (coming from the US and Europe).
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates, perhaps conservatively, that, currently, about two million patients worldwide travel every year seeking treatment in other countries. Those in the West travel abroad for elective or essential treatment mostly because they either don’t have insurance or face long waits under public healthcare systems at home. Currently, Asia receives about 1.32 million of all medical tourists, which places the region in an enviable position.
But, because the business is lucrative, others are getting into the fray and the competition is getting tougher. Over 50 countries are known to have identified medical tourism as a profitable business area. Brazil is selling cosmetic procedures and has reduced taxes to promote the business. Dubai, with the world’s first integrated healthcare free zone comprising 90 medical facilities, has emerged as West Asia’s top medical destination. Australia is studying its chances, having wealthy customers from developing countries in mind.
Asian players, naturally, aren’t resting on their laurels. Thailand, which boasts the world’s most popular hospital for foreign patients (the Bumrungrad in Bangkok, serving some 500,000 medical tourists a year from 190 countries), is in the midst of a massive e-marketing campaign to rope in more patients and get them to stay longer. It wants 10 million medical visitors by 2015, not only to fill its hospitals but also its leisure resorts and shopping malls.
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Singapore, which banks on its state-of-the-art equipment, cutting-edge technologies, and an ultra-clean environment, is going outbound to promote its business further. A Singaporean company, Sourcelink Healthcare Services, is setting up a $150 million mixed-development medical facility in Kazan, capital of Tartarstan (a republic of the Russian Federation), where treatment will be provided at costs much cheaper than in Singapore. The Raffles Medical Group is opening a campus in Osaka, giving a new twist to the medical tourism story that clearly won’t be the last.
South Korea, taking advantage of its near-100 per cent broadband connectivity, has unveiled a programme, called MediApp Korea, which provides all the information and services that a medical visitor would need, including searches based on preferred doctors or clinics. China is pushing Shanghai as its best bet and has established a dedicated products and promotion platform that will act as a third-party administrator/agent and organise the entire range of a foreign patient’s medical, travel, diet and transport needs, including official paperwork. Taiwan is setting up an international medical development fund to promote itself globally and plans to build a major medical tourism zone next to Taoyuan International Airport.
The Philippines, already a popular medical destination, expects to host some one million medical tourists by 2015. Medical visitors will get special visas to stay in the country for up to six months without having to secure an alien certificate of registration. To rev up the offensive, real estate developer Century Properties is investing $100 million in a new medical complex in Makati, Metro Manila, which will have 28 floors and more than 500 clinic spaces. Not to be left behind, Japan has eased visa requirements as well, giving foreign patients renewable, multi-entry, six-month visas, instead of single-entry 90-day visas previously.
Whether this continuing growth in medical tourism and the consequent migration of doctors and nurses to the private sector will create a medical divide and put further pressures on public health services is, of course, another story, and WHO is justifiably worried.