If you’ve been looking at news from the travelsphere for a while, then you already know about the rise in something that’s been dubbed “medical tourism”. However, you might not know exactly what medical tourism means, or what it actually covers.
In a nutshell, medical tourism is simple: it’s all about going from your home country to another country to get discounted medical services. That’s the entire point — if you were able to pay full price for a service in your country, then you wouldn’t have any incentive to really travel to get medical services. Most people wait to pursue medical tourism for high priced procedures, such as dental work and even surgeries.
Now, at first glance you might wonder about how safe medical tourism is. The assumption is that only Western hospitals would be of any quality, but the truth is that many doctors in the Eastern world do travel to get education from the West, and they bring that education back home to their own countries. This means that you’re getting skilled doctors that are a fraction of the cost of what you would normally pay. Many countries have a low cost of living all around, which means that you could still save money even with traveling back and forth. You don’t want to do this for something that’s going to be a trivial expense, since you will often have to travel long distances to get to a doctor.
If you’re trying to jump right in, here are a few points that you need to think about:
Cost is going to be one of the first thins to think about. Again, you will need to wait until you really come to a medical procedure that is just too expensive to get done in your own country. Many insurance companies will not cover medical tourism, and the ones that will do want to make sure that you’ve done your homework before they will clear a trip. You are still responsible for getting all of your travel expenses done as well, so you shouldn’t think that you’re going to just get a free ride here. You still need to make sure that you can afford the trip on your own — at least the cost of getting there and getting back.
From there, you will also need to think about the legal paperwork that you will need to travel internationally. This is a crucial step that a lot of medical tourists skip over because they’re too excited about finally getting their procedure. It would be awful to go through all of the planning steps to get your medical vacation off the ground, only to find that you cannot legally enter the country you want to enter. If you’re in doubt of what’s required for a certain country, you can call that country’s consulate office in your country to ask for more specific information.
Finally, you will need to think about the procedure itself. You will be getting something major done in a country that isn’t your own. That takes a little bit of bravery, and it also takes being prepared for anything. This is where you will nee dot conduct the research or even turn to a medical tourism outfit that can already set up everything for you. There’s nothing wrong with someone else doing the planning for you — if you’ve never done this before, it could be a much better option than just trying to do everything on your own. Your health is too important for you to make any mistakes, so keep this in mind as you do your planning as well.
Overall, you can create a powerful way to take care of your medical needs while still saving for the financial goals that you really want to hit. Your health should never bankrupt you, but it’s too important to ignore, so why not see what medical tourism can do for you?
