Different from the general understanding, medical tourism is not only for the rich, more and more middle-class consumers in Asian and African countries are willing to spend more money to travel abroad to seek better medical services.
How big is the global market for medical tourism?
At present, there is no accurate data to answer this question. The main reason is that different countries define the concept of "medical tourism" differently. Statistics in some countries even include tourists who come to do spa or get sick during the trip. Allied Market Research estimates that the total output value of the global medical tourism market in 2016 was US $61 billion. But Laing Buisson, who specializes in medical tourism research, reckons that the real value is between $10 billion and $15 billion. No matter which research institution thinks, the global medical tourism market is more than 10 billion dollars, and with the further development of globalization and the Internet, the market is still developing rapidly. But which countries have benefited most from this wave? What are the main projects that they can attract consumers?
About the price of overseas medical treatment
Different from the general understanding, medical tourism is not only for the rich, more and more middle-class consumers in Asian and African countries are willing to spend more money to travel abroad to seek better medical services.
Therefore, in the choice of medical tourism destination, the price factor is very important. For example, in Germany, the average cost of heart valve replacement is about 35000 US dollars, but in neighboring Austria, it only needs half of the price, and there is no significant difference between the two medical levels; hip replacement needs 14000 US dollars in the UK, 11700 US dollars in Turkey, and 5500 US dollars in Poland. South Korea, Malaysia and Dubai have invested heavily in setting up professional medical centers to attract foreign patients. For example, Dubai health care city aims to attract Gulf patients who have to go to Europe and the United States for medical treatment due to lack of medical resources. In this way, some areas lacking of medical resources have become hot destinations of medical tourism for overseas consumers because of their price advantages.
Will overseas medical resources flow across borders in the future?
In the future, medical service workers may choose to travel overseas to serve patients themselves. The economist reported that China used to be a major exporter of patients, but now, such as Johns Hopkins, Cleveland Clinic and University of Pittsburgh
Medical Center, they are cooperating with local hospitals in China to establish joint ventures or cooperative institutions to provide high-quality medical services for Chinese patients close to home.
It can be predicted that in the future, the resource allocation of health care industry will be more optimized, and consumers will face more and more choices of high-quality medical services. If we ignore the health care consumer demand of the global post-80s and post-90s new consumers, medical service providers may face greater challenges from around the world.
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