Korean Job Discussion Forums

[igotthisguitar]

Asian medical tourism to become multi-billion-dollar industry: report
Fri Apr 7, 1:18 PM ET

SINGAPORE (AFP) - Asia's medical tourism industry is expected to generate over 4.4 billion dollars a year by 2012, with India, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea the top destinations, a leading travel firm said.

Low-cost, high-quality healthcare in Asia is already attracting more than 1.6 million tourists each year, mostly from within the region, according to a report issued by Singapore-based air ticketing firm Abacus International.

"Asia is a preferred healthcare destination and is set to grow further, fuelled by the relatively low-priced healthcare services available," Abacus president Don Birch said.

According to the report, medical tourism -- which refers to trips combining treatment and check-ups with leisure -- is growing by 20 to 30 percent each year with the industry now worth around half a billion dollars a year in Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and India.

"Asia is an ideal growth environment ... with competitively-priced quality healthcare service in major tourist cities," Birch said.

[hogwonguy1979]

60 Minutes did a piece on this back in the fall.

Apparently you can get a quint heart bypass in Bangkok with a private 5 star quality room and private nurse for $11k, cost over $100k in the US and the drs are US trained and are quite good.

thats just one example and given what i've seen at Korean hospitals if its anything non-life threatening I'm headed to BKK to have it done