Korean Medical Tourism Industry Benefited from Law Revision
South Korea’s medical tourism industry has benefited from the revisions done in the law to allow hospitals to market its services to foreign patients.
In May 2009, the number of foreign patients that visited South Korea jumped to 1,062. This accounts for a 40% increase in visitors in that month alone compared to the number of foreign patients that visited the country in 2008 for the same month.
Some of the changes that were done to the law in South Korea include allowing hospitals to pay commissions to agents for patients that they referred. This was previously not allowed under the law. The country has also eased up on the visa applications for foreigners wanting to visit South Korea to receive health care.
South Korea’s law revisions were implemented to help boost the medical tourism in the country and help it become more competitive to the medical tourism industry in countries like Thailand and Singapore. These two countries attract the most number of medical tourists in Asia. South Korea looks at medical tourism as the industry that could boost its economy in the coming years.
The medical tourism in Asia is expected to grow to US $5 billion by 2012 with more than 6 million patients travelling from other continents. Korea aims to gain a good percentage of these earnings by attracting patients through accessible healthcare, with high quality and low cost. At the moment, South Korea is known for cosmetic procedures but the company aims to promote the other medical fields in Korea.
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I highly recommend traveling overseas for medical treatment.
My wife and I are in our 60’s self employed. Our Blue shield plan costs us $920 a month for a plan with an $8000 deductible.
Needless to say we are basically self insurance.
To meet our medical needs we have been travelling to Thailand for the last 4-5 years for medical care
It has worked out great. We pay 1/10-1/20 the cost medical and dental. Last November I had an operation for a condition known as dysphagia. We priced the operation in the US…$2500 which we would have to pay out of pocket. The cost at Chulalongkorn hospital in Bangkok…$100. Needless to say I waited and had the procedure done in Bangkok. 7 months later the swallowing difficulty I was having is gone.
Of course you have to pay for airfare and hotel bills. We set aside about $1500-$2000 for that.
When we get to Bangkok we see the dentist, get full physicals and blood work, see a doctor for all our aches and pains and get our medications (at least 25% cheaper than the same meds in California)
We feel our health has improved since going to Thailand because we don’t have to make choices between cost and treatment. If we need treatment we get it..and pay cash. Plus we don’t have to deal with the insurance company telling us what treatments are covered and which are not.
I’m a convert to the Thai medical system.