Need treatment, will travel. The medical tourism opportunity.

By Gonzalo López Martí – Creative director, etc – MMiami.com

  • Soaring medical costs on US soil are become prohibitive for a large percentage of the population.
  • More and more patients are seeking treatments outside the fifty continental states.
  • Particularly those without comprehensive healthcare coverage.
  • Credit card operator Visa estimates that 11 million Americans travel abroad each year for medical care.
  • Most of these travellers range between 45 and 64 years of age.
  • The majority are Caucasian and college educated, with 50 percent having household incomes between USD 50,000 and 100,000.
  • Additionally, 50 percent of them have health insurance.
  • These patients claim savings above USD 4,900 make it worth pursuing medical tourism as an option.*
  • Southeast Asia has been the most aggressive and successful in the endeavor to attract medical tourists.
  • Six of the world’s top ten medical tourist destinations lie in Southeast Asia.
  • But Southeast Asia is way too far.
  • Latin America and, particularly, Puerto Rico show substantial potential for growth in attracting Americans and Canadians for medical procedures.
  • Yeah, I know: US Hispanics have traveling south of the border for breast augmentation and liposuction for decades now.
  • How long until the same applies to heart surgery, orthopedic treatments et al?
  • Just so you know, a hip replacement operation that costs north of $50k on US soil can be performed with comparable outcome (in other words, without complications) by ONE THIRD OF THAT PRICE TAG in various countries of Latin America.
  • This is a HUGE marketing opportunity for bicultural marketing & advertising professionals north of the border.
  • The big healthcare insurers would LOVE these kinds of savings.
  • By the way, I’m on it already.
  • Looking for advertisers and financial backers with considerable success.
  • If you are interested in tagging along and exploring this promising field, you know where to find me.

*Source: Global Buyers Survey 2017

 

 

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