Health Care Tourism

Health care tourists are the new target group for the hospitality sector. Be it spas in the Czech Republic, dental treatments in Hungary, dental implants at the Black Sea in Bulgaria, medical wellness in Slovenia, or a dental prosthesis while on vacation on the island of Majorca, it all adds up to the trend towards combining medical treatments with vacation time.

Particularly Eastern European countries are experiencing a boom in health care tourism. These new visitors stay at spa and wellness hotels and get their medical treatment done at a local clinic or hospital. They would largely select institutions for dental or cosmetic surgery and are both capable and willing to pay for themselves.

A recently published study found that the market share for privately funded health care services would soar over the next 15 years to up to 400 Billion Euros. Right now, the portion of privately financed treatments in Europe reaches not even 10 percent of the overall budged. One may expect a short-term increase in the share of up to 40 percent, which would benefit wellness hotels and spas by the same amount.

Since patients are today well informed (in parts through the internet), they subject the issue of health care services to much more critical analysis. They want to have a choice when it comes to the question of which treatment in what country to what conditions to select. For them, the internet will become a major source of information because its platforms make the comparisons of prices and offers very easy to handle so that patients can compile a health program on their own. Since the combination of wellness and vacations are becoming increasingly popular, many internet agents have already started offering custom-tailored programs that cater to the new health care tourist.

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Signs indicate that the health care market is an ever-changing business. Currently, the longstanding system of supply and distribution has just begun to turn into a system of supply and demand, paving the way to a more service-oriented attitude among suppliers.

Health Insurance Companies Are Finally to Do their Share

Meanwhile, even public health insurers begin to dispel their initial concerns regarding the quality of cost-effective medical treatments in the new European member states. The fact that German insurers have already started closing contracts with dentists in Bulgaria or Hungary, suggests a quality of treatment equal to that found in older European countries. These connections are widely used by German patients who would save some of their co-pay expenses as the cost of labor there is considerably lower than in their home country. Not surprisingly, German health insurers have set up branches on the Spanish islands to work directly with local dentists and compile lists with prices and medical services to be sent to their German customers back home. Other countries, such as Switzerland and Austria have long ago taken the lead in this health care tourism. However, small-sized cities in western Hungary, where 300 dentists practice their profession, demonstrate one thing: East European countries can make a profit from the new trend of combined travel demands.

Saving Money by Going Abroad

You will find that foreign dental labs, eye laser clinics, and clinics offering esthetic surgery charge costs that are already up to 40 to 60 percent below what would be charged in Germany- even when the coverage of your local insurer has not yet been included. Only the low costs of labor, rent, and equipment account for that, but the professional training, the quality of the laboratory, and the medical treatment itself are on a par with German standards. You should be careful, however, about the professionalism of the clinic of your choice. Good online health portals may offer you advice on how to proceed as well as a list of serious medical institutions.

A Model Calculation for Dental Treatments

A German dentist would charge about 14,000 Euros for six implants, three solid ceramic crowns, and three ceramic inlays. Your health insurer covers 1,400 Euros, which means about 13,000 Euros co-payment. A treatment in Bulgaria would be 8,000 Euros, including flight and hotel. Due to higher cost for travel and stay, the same trip to Spain would cost you about 1,000 Euros more. Let us give another example: twelve front teeth are to be replaced, as are older amalgam fillings, inlays, and crowns. This would cost in Germany roughly 17,000 Euros, of which your public insurance company covers merely 1,000 Euros, as it does not consider these treatments a necessity. Therefore, co-payment adds up to 16,000 Euros, which is much more than, for instance, Hungary's fee of 6,000 Euros.

Customer Service Is King

Custom-tailored services are essential for Western health care tourists in deciding which dental treatment in what new European member state to choose. One of them is the so-called dental cab, or dental taxi, which picks customers at the airport or train station and brings them to the dental lab. Moreover, patients love trips to the hinterland, urban sightseeing, hunting, fishing and other leisure activities. According to the motto "Combine Health and Vacation," the father gets new teeth, the daughter takes riding lessons, the mother gets a liposuction, and the son practices his fishing skills. At night, the family reunites at their hotel's wellness pool, waiting for the delicious dinner to come.

That in the future Germans, the British, Norwegians, or Swedes will do without immaculate teeth, a youthful and well-shaped body, or a breast enlargement, seems very unlikely. A survey of 1,000 Europeans aged between 14 and 50 years found that 80 percent would attribute great value to white teeth and a beautifully shaped body. Seventy percent of those interviewed showed themselves inclined to invest their money into these bodily ideals.

Making Future Predictions about Health Care Tourism

Modern times require saving time by combining health care with travel - a treat that we observe when talking to our customers. The demographic change, a world population getting older, will bring about an increasing number of bodily symptoms that, in turn, heightens the need to provide for one's autumn. Moreover, people begin to acknowledge the various functions of their body, hence raise their health-consciousness. Most people consider beauty, a healthy body, and perfect teeth to be signs of private well-being and professional success.

Europeans are increasingly adopting current American values concerning a healthy life style and the ideal of beauty. In addition, lack of time dictates that patients tend to prefer all-inclusive health care packages to protracted procedures and exhausting discussions and complicated arrangements about the when, how, and where of treatments.

Due to its interconnecting of individualized travel and health programs, "medical wellness," the holistic approach to rehabilitation, has found its way into the minds of the new, health-conscious generation of Europeans. Since medical wellness can also be seen as a way to bridge the different European regions, it finds its supporters in the political arena, too.

Criteria for Selecting the Best Health Care Vacations

• Medical opinions are less crucial in deciding what health care vacations would be best for you. Rather, the patient's motives and personal preferences play a vital part here.
• Custom-tailored health care vacations require the patient having the medical treatment done in an appropriate resort. It is important that the scope of treatments available need to meet the demands of the patient.
• Natural remedies and therapies enrich the health center's usual catalog of programs.
• The opportunity to relax, to workout, and to experience some gorgeous days abroad will positively affect the patient's decision to spend his or her time there.
• Visits to health resorts, spas, sports hotels, and other related institutions will be the future focal points for health care tourists.
• If necessary, an attending doctor will monitor the treatment of slight impairments of health. The average patient is between 30 and 60 years.
• The growing majority of health care vacationers is well educated and work in professions such as manager, free-lancer, lawyer, teacher, or physician.

Health Care Tourism - Why Patients Travel Abroad

In the early 1990s, patients from Western European countries, namely Austria, traveled to Hungary to get their dental treatment done - at a bargain. Since then, due to cheap flight fares and the fact that German health insurer have reduced their coverage of dental treatments to a minimum, the number of German health care tourists has soared.

Price Differential Encourages Health Care Tourism

Dental treatments in Hungary make up only one third of the costs in Germany or Switzerland. Hungarians charge 170 Euros for simple crowns made of metal ceramic, while in Germany the bill shows 550 Euros. More complicated operations such as the insertion of implants make the price differential even more apparent: 700 Euros vs. 1,500 to 2,700 Euros.

EU Planning

The European Union is planning to make health care tourism common practice. The respective commissioner is to take advantage of the European market with regard to the health care system as well. Since this new approach may harm the overall condition of the national health care systems, concrete suggestions will be made anytime soon. In the near future, the increasing number of traveling patients will not stop short of remaining within the limits of the EU. Because other economic, cultural, and social sectors can take advantage of the European market, there is no legitimate reason for the exclusion of health care. If people can freely travel around to shop, work, and connect to other people, why should not they freely choose the location of their treatment?

Treatment for a Bargain

Any development of health care tourism within the limits of the European Union requires the approval of every single member state. In the meantime, Polish and Hungarian dentists treat their patients in labs in Sweden - using interpreters and charging half of the price his Swedish colleagues ask to pay. Moreover, many German and Austrian patients go to Hungary to get a dental treatment at a discount rate of 50 percent off. Traveling further East would not make much of a difference. The growing business of dental treatments will not come to a halt, and no matter how politicians decide, you cannot turn back the clock.

What the EU-Commission Intents to Do

The Commission is to present a bill dealing with the liberalization of the health care system. Obviously, there is anonymous agreement as to the necessity of this program. Since in 2007 Germany has assumed the Presidency of the European Council, many hopes were attached to this Presidency. The liberalization of the European health care market has been a much declared by the Presidency under German lead. However, much time has been spend to sound the national interests, and reducing bureaucratic hurdles for medical treatments abroad without curtailing national competencies for the organization and financing of national health care systems. The new laws should however not be limited to ensure the long-due legal certainty for international coverage. The Commission would like to see results concerning the questions what medicinal information has to be provided, which authority monitors international health care services, who takes care of the standards of quality, and who can be held responsible in case it occurs secondary damage.

Nonetheless, the regulation of the reimbursement of costs is one of the most pressing issues discussed in Brussels. Because reliable sources content that half of the EU member states do not really care about these reimbursements, about ten of them have been sued for violation of the contract.

Ever more health and care insurance providers discover the advantages of treatments abroad. The British national health care system, for instance, sends patients who suffer from eye cataracts to privately held clinics in Turkey, because operations are good value. The largest Dutch insurer has its customers treated in Bielefeld, Germany, as there are sufficiently available capacities. There, the Dutch patient may get a hip prosthesis along with a good rehabilitation program afterwards. By that, the insurance company kills two birds with one shot, because it avoids waiting time and saves money.

Because of these trends, health care tourism will become the best selling item of the hospitality industry and give a boost to the economy. Above all, consumers will benefit from the stimulation of the competition between the privately and publicly funded health care systems. Time is ripe for the new European member states to adapt their health systems to Western standards of quality and beat their drums so that they will obtain their share in the growing business of health care tourism. The resulting cross-border cooperation will certainly further the development of a common European health care market, producing a synergy effect that will, in turn, help health care tourism grow.

Medipoint-planet.com is certainly to do its part in raising the public awareness and enhancing the accessibility of health care services as offered by the new European countries. Before you and your family, friends, or others start into an adventure with an uncertain ending, you may search our website for high-quality and patients-friendly labs and clinics in Eastern Europe. We strive for excellence and for integrity, and we want to ensure that you get the best treatment possible at the place of your choosing.

Your Medipoint-Planet team