medical tourism....asia

[murphy_p_t]

im looking for insight on medical tourism in philipines. considering things like executive physical, colonoscopy, laser treatments, and the like.

pro or con...

[ns3]

I don't know if there is a big medical tourism industry in the Philippines or not but I had to make a trip to the hospital on one of my many visits due to a parasite infection (my wife is a Filipina). The care was excellent and ridiculously cheap - like about $30 for an emergency room visit including lab work, doctor's consultation, and medicine.

[dualstow]

I had two wisdom teeth taken out in Taiwan, because I was living there at the time. US$15 each, no other fees.

[Pointedstick]

I had two wisdom teeth taken out in Taiwan, because I was living there at the time. US$15 each, no other fees.

Out of curiosity, do most people pay for medical and dental care in cash there?

[Kshartle]

I was billed $3,400 for an IV and two warm blankets (that I had to give back) for an emergency room visit due to horiffic food poisoning a couple months ago.

I guess I'll buy a ticket to Thailand next time I need emergency room care. It'll be a hell of a lot cheaper and I can get a mini vacation.

[dualstow]

I had two wisdom teeth taken out in Taiwan, because I was living there at the time. US$15 each, no other fees.

Out of curiosity, do most people pay for medical and dental care in cash there?

They people I knew did when I was there in the mid-to-late nineties. The best part was that you could see a doctor within 15-30 minutes of walking into an office. Twenty years later, I'm still not used to making appointments here in the U.S. and waiting a week to a month to see a nurse practitioner.

Taiwan's healthcare system was one of a few featured in a Frontline special on healthcare. They borrowed from what they felt were some of the best systems out there. France and Canada if I recall correctly. They use a nifty little card that looks like a SIM card to store everyone's health data.

I have no idea how it's holding up now -- Kev in TW must know -- but it was great when I was there.

Added: Frontline link.

[Ad Orientem]

America's medical system is unbelievably expensive compared to the rest of the word. For anything other than routine care, or on the other extreme, serious medical emergencies, I would at least think about going somewhere else. The travel costs have to be weighed of course. But depending on the procedure you might still save a small fortune. Things are so bad that some insurance companies are even offering to cover some overseas medical procedure because they save money.

As for where is the best place to go, there are a lot of variables so your mileage is going to vary. Among the most common destinations for medical tourism, and I have heard good things about them, are Thailand, India and Costa Rica. But there are a lot of options.

[edsanville]

I was billed $3,400 for an IV and two warm blankets (that I had to give back) for an emergency room visit due to horiffic food poisoning a couple months ago.

I guess I'll buy a ticket to Thailand next time I need emergency room care. It'll be a hell of a lot cheaper and I can get a mini vacation.

That sounds awful.  I am curious, what type of food caused the poisoning?

[Kshartle]

I was billed $3,400 for an IV and two warm blankets (that I had to give back) for an emergency room visit due to horiffic food poisoning a couple months ago.

I guess I'll buy a ticket to Thailand next time I need emergency room care. It'll be a hell of a lot cheaper and I can get a mini vacation.

That sounds awful.  I am curious, what type of food caused the poisoning?

Chicken of the sea.

It was my fault. I opened a can on Friday or Sat and ate half, then I put it in tuperware, but still in the can. Monday morning I made a sandwich. It could have been the cheese or the mayo, but something prevented me from detecting any scent of bacteria. Within 30 minutes I thought I was having a stroke or my appendix burst. If you had told me at the worst point that I would have to endure 48 more hours of it I would have said just kill me.

Forget waterboarding. Feed someone one of my sandwiches and they will talk. They will tell you everything.

[ns3]

I was talking to my wife about this thread and came up with an idea for maybe a business we might be able to start when we retire to the Philippines (in < 7 years according to current plan).

As I said, I don't know whether medical tourism is big there or not and I wouldn't want to get into promoting it but my thinking was it might be a nice business to play a secondary role catering to medical tourists in the Philippines if it takes off. My thinking is we could provide (only) help with making the arrangements for the medical treatment, transportation to/from the airport, a place to stay nearby and transportation to/from the medical facilities. Making a trip overseas like that if you've never been there before would be very stressful, to say the least, so I'm thinking people would be willing to pay a reasonable price for the service, especially to a sympathetic American with a Filipino wife.

Just rambling thoughts.

[Libertarian666]

I was talking to my wife about this thread and came up with an idea for maybe a business we might be able to start when we retire to the Philippines (in < 7 years according to current plan).

As I said, I don't know whether medical tourism is big there or not and I wouldn't want to get into promoting it but my thinking was it might be a nice business to play a secondary role catering to medical tourists in the Philippines if it takes off. My thinking is we could provide (only) help with making the arrangements for the medical treatment, transportation to/from the airport, a place to stay nearby and transportation to/from the medical facilities. Making a trip overseas like that if you've never been there before would be very stressful, to say the least, so I'm thinking people would be willing to pay a reasonable price for the service, especially to a sympathetic American with a Filipino wife.

Just rambling thoughts.

That sounds like a very useful service to me.