India - A palliative retreat for Medical Tourism.

Medical tourism is a sector which has been expanding since the past decade. Since the costs for medical treatments in the western countries have been booming to great proportions, the foreign residents have been travelling to different countries to seek medical treatments from there instead. Whether the person is uninsured, or covered, he/she saves a great margin of their costs by opting to get medical treatments from countries which offer them the same quality of services at lesser costs. The costs are less not due to lack in the standard of services, rather it is a simple reason of favorable currency exchange systems.

India is among the leading countries providing the service of medical tourism for people throughout the world. Ever since India was recognized as the third largest economy in the world, it has become more and more popular as a tourist destination as the standard of living has been continually getting better. Not only for regular tourists, but for medical tourists too, India is becoming a hub for getting medical treatments, as India is said to have some of the most highly qualified physicians throughout the world.

At present, India’s medical tourism industry is worth approximately 1.5 billion USD. It is said to have an annual growth of 30% and hence, it won’t be long till India crosses its turnover to 2 billion USD. The norms for getting a medical visa of up to one year for India have been relaxed and it is now very easy to get one.

Medical/surgical treatments which are becoming a forte for Indian physicians include elective procedures such as cardiovascular surgeries, hip and knee replacements, cosmetic surgeries, dental procedures, infertility treatments, or other procedures which are usually not covered by the insurance companies in developed countries making them really expensive for ordinary people. Another advantage of India to develop in this industry is the fact that English is its official language; hence, making it easy for foreign nationals to communicate and better yet, develop a bond with their doctors as is required in tough operations.

India is a hotspot for medical tourism not only because of the physicians and the low costs. India is popular because of the vast variety of post-treatment recuperation packages offered here. Since centuries there has been a cultural emphasis on education in India, and hence, India has advanced itself along with the modern times and yet has preserved the goodness of customary traditional medical ways of rejuvenation due to which numerous relaxing and rejuvenating options are made available to the medical tourists, such as Yoga, Ayurveda, Allopathic and Naturopathic medicines, meditation therapy, etc.

There is immense growth potential for becoming the most popular medical tourism destination at least in the continent of Asia within the next few years. If only India could optimize the quality of its healthcare infrastructure, by making all the big hospitals eligible for being recognized by the insurance companies of countries like US or UK.