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DUBAI // Dubai hopes to attract some of the US$2 billion (Dh7.35bn)
that patients from the Gulf spend each year on medical treatment
overseas, but it will first have to develop its healthcare system. Patients in the GCC surveyed by the McKinsey group in 2007 complained of inadequate specialist treatments, limited consultation hours and long waiting periods for health services in their countries. To attract some of the money that such patients spend elsewhere, Dubai must first bring its hospitals up to international standards through training its professionals, developing an accreditation system and increasing patient trust and transparency, Ms al Jassmi said. Dr Mounes Kawaali, the chairman of Clemenceau Medical International in Lebanon, said that because of proxim ... Read more » |
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BOSTON (TheStreet) -- Post-recession thrift, health care reform and the aging baby boom generation will likely lead to a surge in overseas "medical tourism." The weak economy has reigned in the number of U.S. citizens travelling abroad for everything from facelifts to heart bypasses. About 540,000 Americans sought medical care outside the U.S. in 2008, a 28% decrease from the previous year, according to a report released last month by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions. That number is expected to rise 20% this year to a projected 648,000, and grow by 35% annually starting in 2010. "Outbound medical tourism could reach upwards of 1.6 million patients by 2012," says Paul Keckley, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Deloitte Center for Health Solutions. "Pent-up consumer demand for elective procedures, especially outpatient dental and cosmetic procedures, will help fuel increased demand for medical tourism again." The ... Read more » |
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Patients who lack health insurance are more likely to die from car
accidents and other traumatic injuries than people who belong to a
health plan -- even though emergency rooms are required to care for all
comers regardless of ability to pay, according to a study published
today.
An analysis of 687,091 patients who visited trauma centers nationwide from 2002 to 2006 found that the odds of dying from injuries were almost twice as high for the uninsured than for patients with private insurance, researchers reported in Archives of Surgery. Trauma physicians said they were surprised by the findings, even though a slew of studies had previously documented the ill effects of going without health coverage. Uninsured patients are less likely to be screened for certain cancers or to be admitted to specialty hospitals for procedures such as heart bypass surgery. Overall, about 18,000 deaths each year have been traced to a lack of health insurance. But insurance status ... Read more » |
