If you haven’t yet read Ian Youngman’s article in the latest issue of the International Medical Travel Journal, I urge you to do so.
Youngman asks, “What happened to those 2008 medical tourism forecasts?” Even the most conservative prediction of 1.6 million medical tourists – more than double 2007 numbers – seems outrageously high.
It suggests that the airline industry had a great year last year. Imagine 850,000 more medical tourists filling about 2,500 more airplanes en route to hospitals in Singapore, Thailand, India and other medical destinations. Even if half these patients drove across the U.S. border to Mexico or Canada for care, there would still be enough demand for new aircraft, according to these figures, to make airline manufacturers very happy.
How many medical tourists are there? Is the answer the millions predicted by consulting firms like McKinsey or Deloitte, or is it the handful reported by insurance companies like Wellpoint and Aetna?
Walking the empty lobbies of private hospitals in Asia and Latin America this spring and summer, one had the feeling the answer is closer to the handful than the mullions.
The jury is still out on medical tourism.
Insurers and employers who offer a medical travel option seem to be satisfied that they can provide such a lower cost alternative. But most report that not one person has yet taken up this option.
How many insurers and employers truly care if anyone goes abroad for treatment? It’s simply one more item to sell on a menu of insurance policy options.
What are they doing to help the insured get over the fear and uncertainty of a medical vacation? How many offer an orientation program or workshops for the insured? Who offers a medical concierge service at home or abroad to help with the planning, the medical journey and the aftercare?
Right now medical tourists, like other patients who need to pay for care out of their own pocket, are delaying medical care as they wait for the economic downturn to run its course. Since most medical tourism from America is for medical procedures such as hip or knee replacement, gastric bypass surgery, dental surgery and plastic surgery, it is not urgent and can be scheduled at any time. Only the patient’s pain and suffering is the worse off.
The empty hallways are temporary.
Medical travel and health tourism insiders believe the delayed treatments will create a pent-up demand for these procedures in a year or two once people feel comfortable using their savings again for “non-essentials.”
Medical travel has always been a consumer driven movement. Consumers are biding their time and delaying medical care until economies around the world start to rebound, until their jobs and investments are secure again, and the curtain closes on the drama surrounding American healthcare reform.
Julie Munro is the CEO of InterMed Global.