30 Aug
New Health Traveller Blog Launched
It is estimated that by the end of 2010, more than 400,000 Americans will use treatment abroad for a variety of health needs (Travel Impact Newswire). Recently, a health traveller blog was launched which includes forums where consumers of Medical Tourism can have their say. The Health Traveller website hopes to help consumers make informed choices when they are contemplating medical or health treatment abroad. It points out that – while not yet mainstream – travelling overseas for medical treatment is not new. In ancient Roman times documented cases of people travelling comparatively vast distances to locations of health were not uncommon. What is new is that the major reason Americans are travelling overseas is that the high cost of elective, non-acute medical procedures is making such procedures inaccessible at home in the US.
The list of medical travel destinations is growing rapidly. In terms of overseas visitor numbers it is difficult to get a good estimate for each country. While there are currently more than 130 countries that want to offer options for treatment abroad, the locations currently most sought out by U.S. health travellers include such locales as India, Thailand, Mexico, Costa Rica and Singapore. Certainly, medical tourism is not as well developed in New Zealand as it could be and we are – to our detriment – trailing our tourism rivals in developing this industry (Access Tourism NZ, 16 August 2010). In its broadest sense, many patients often view treatment abroad as an opportunity to address health conditions while seeing the world (The Health Traveller). For this reason, it is imperative that Access Tourism be developed alongside medical tourism, as has pointed out on this website many times before.
