medical tourism

India

India is known in particular for heart surgery, hip resurfacing and other areas of advanced medicine. The government and private hospital groups are committed to the goal of making India a world leader in the industry. The industry's main appeal is low-cost treatment. Most estimates claim treatment costs in India start at around a tenth of the price of comparable treatment in America or Britain.

For example, "Howard Staab, a self-employed, uninsured, middle-aged carpenter from urban North Carolina," needed surgery for acute mitral-valve prolapse, which would have cost him a fifth of a million dollars in his home state. Staab was treated in New Delhi, India, for less than $7,000US by an Indian doctor trained at New York University.Another comparative example involves preventive health screening. At one private clinic in London, a thorough men's health check-up that includes blood tests, electro-cardiogram tests, chest x-rays, lung tests and abdominal ultrasound costs £345 ($574, €500). By comparison, a comparable check-up at a clinic operated by Delhi-based health care company Max Healthcare costs $84.

Escorts Heart Institute and Research Center in delhi and faridabad, India performs nearly 15,000 heart operations every year, and the post-surgery mortality rate is only 0.8 percent, less than half that of most major U.S. hospitals.

Estimates of the value of medical tourism to India go as high as $2 billion a year by 2012.India has good,modern medical infrastructure that, in some places, can be comparable to medical infrastructure in the West. The Indian government is taking steps to address other infrastructure issues that can serve as a deterrant to the country's growth in medical tourism.

The south Indian city of CHENNAI has been declared India's Health Capital, as it nets in 45% of health tourists from abroad and 30-40% of domestic health tourists.