Home for the Holidays
(And For Health)
By Mikee dela Cruz
PUBLISHED: DECEMBER 2009

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IN 2007, ONLY two years after she started working as a nurse in Philadelphia in the US, L.T. Magallanes needed to have some dental work, specifically three fillings and a complete cleaning, done.  Of course she had dental insurance, just as she had other insurances provided by her employer, “but it only covered part of the (projected costs reaching) over $1,140,” she says, meaning that “I had to share, to co-pay the costs, which would cost me over $570.  (And) while the amount is actually affordable, it meant foregoing, even if only temporarily, a lot of stuff – and that’s including going home for a well-deserved vacation after three years.”

After mulling over her options, and with the help of her mother based in Las Piñas City who did some “dental investigation price canvassing in our hometown in my behalf,” Magallanes decided to visit, instead, their family dentist, who was willing to do all the needed dental works for only P6,500, approximately only $162 (at P40 to $1 exchange rate).

So late last year, Magallanes was able to come home to “look after my well-being while vacationing,” she says.  “It’s like hitting two birds with one stone, as the cliché goes.  And it can’t get any better than this.”
Magallanes is actually one of the continuously growing number of people discovering the benefits – and joys – of medical tourism.

MERGED BENEFITS

Medical tourism, the “act of traveling to other countries to obtain medical (including dental, surgical, et cetera) care,” as defined by the philippinemedicaltourism.info, has actually been growing in prominence due to “a combination of many factors, including exorbitant costs of healthcare in industrialized nations, ease and affordability of international travel, favorable currency exchange rates in the global economy, rapidly improving technology, and standards of care in many countries of the world.”

“More and more people from all over the world are traveling to other countries not only as tourists who come for sightseeing and shopping but also to get medical, dental, and surgical services from hospitals and other health destinations,” Dr. Carlos Lasa Jr., a certified plastic and reconstructive surgeon specializing in aesthetic/cosmetic surgery and liposuction, states in his Web site cosmeticsurgeryphil.com.  “The Philippines is also fast becoming a favored destination for patients seeking quality medical care at very affordable prices.   The high costs of healthcare in industrialized countries, the improved standards in foreign countries and the lower costs of air travel have made medical tourism a popular trend. In the Philippines, for example, both local and foreign patients who otherwise couldn't afford medical procedures such as plastic surgery benefit from the highly favorable exchange rate.  The cost savings are significant,”

For example, if the average surgeon's fee for eyelid surgery in the US is $2,500, in the Philippines, a qualified surgeon only charges $600 to $1,500. For liposuction, surgeon's fees in the US average $2,000 per area; in the Philippines, it is only around $800 for the first area and $500 for succeeding areas.

This is because “lower overhead costs and professional fees makes it possible for surgeons to perform these surgeries at a fraction of the cost of the same procedures in the US, the UK, and other countries, without sacrificing quality of care,” Lasa adds.

Touted as a “revolution in health care,” medical tourism is expected to earn select Asian and Latin American countries a total of $4.4 billion by the end of 2012.  India alone is forecasted to generate $2 billion of that figure, according to the Confederation of Indian Industry, with over 150,000 medical tourists visiting the country annually.  The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) estimated that some 270,000 medical tourists visited Singapore in 2004, earning the country $500 million in Singapore dollars (nearly $300 million US dollars).

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