Are Increasing Healthcare Costs Driving Medical Tourism?
The landscape of healthcare and health insurance and payments is getting increasingly volatile. Americans have a lot to navigate and, for some, the rising prices and overall complexity are pushing them to the practice of medical tourism.
Americans are flocking to other countries for care, and this medical tourism could have an oversized and lasting impact on the future of American care and beyond.
To learn more, MarketScale sourced the insights of Wesley Jacobs, Founder of Apollo Medical Travel, which aims to “make medical care accessible by connecting patients with highly trained physicians in Latin America and supporting them from the initial consultation through recovery.”
Jacobs:
“First, let’s frame the problem. In 2018, the United States spent $3.6 trillion on healthcare, which comes down to about $11,000 per American.
This is roughly double what the citizens of other comparably developed nations pay for their healthcare. And, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, these prices are expected to rise faster than inflation.
By 2028, we can expect to be paying $18,000, or 20% of our GDP, for every American.
So, American consumers are savvy through word of mouth and through the power of the internet. They can easily find medical providers abroad that are offering the same procedures at a much more affordable price than their colleagues in the United States.
So, they’re pulling out their passport for their health.”
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