Top Things People Look for When They Use Medical Tourism:
You may think that saving money is the top thing people look for when they choose to travel abroad for cosmetic surgery, dental, and/or medical procedures. However, the fact is that when medical tourists are polled, they often answer that they prefer high quality over low price.
In fact, most of the people who use medical tourism say that they are willing to pay a bit more as long as they know they are getting a high quality service. Let's face it; most people are unwilling to risk their lives in order to save a few dollars.
When asked, medical tourists give the following as the top things they look for:
1. High Quality
2. Comfort
3. Safety
4. Price
It is surprising to see that price is actually number three on this list. After all, isn't medical tourism all about saving money on health care procedures? Perhaps it was so in the beginning; when people where flying for 18 or more hours on airplane to Bumrungrad hospital in far-off Thailand.
However, more and more people are finding out that they can get the same if not better quality if they travel to South America for medical, cosmetic surgery, and dental procedures. There were many Americans and Canadians traveling to Mexico for health care, but as the violence between the drug cartels has increased, medical tourism has decreased.
Again, people are unwilling to risk their lives in order to save a few dollars, and Mexico is in the middle of a turf war between rival drug cartels.
As people began looking for other options that met their priorities, they began to discover a small country in Central America which has high quality health care, (the fact the the three major hospitals are accredited by the Joint Commission International really helps, as does the fact that most of the doctors involved in medical tourism speak English), comfort (great hotels and recovery centers and only short flight from most major North American Airports), safety (the country does not have the levels of violence that are found in the rest of Central America and Mexico), and price (medical tourists can expect a savings of 30% to 70%, depending on the health care procedure).
The medical tourism Costa Rica offers has all of the ingredients that the medical traveler looks for, and it has been gaining in popularity as a medical tourism destination. During the past five years, the country has experienced a growth of 15% or more in medical tourism. There are very few markets that are doing as well as the booming Costa Rica medical tourism industry, so it may be worthwhile for you to find out why.
Therefore, if you are thinking about traveling abroad for health care, perhaps it is time your turned your eyes southward.
