Growth Of Medical Tourism Industry And Wellness In India: Opportunities & Challenges

THE most recent trend in privatization of health services is medical tourism, which is gaining prominence in developing countries. As healthcare turns costlier in developed countries, India’s medical tourism market is expected to more than double in size from USD 3 billion at present to around USD 8 billion by 2020, a report says.

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The cost consciousness factor and availability of accredited facilities have led to emergence of several global medical tourism corridors - Singapore, Thailand, India, Malaysia, Taiwan, Mexico and Costa Rica. “Amongst these corridors of health, India has the second largest number of accredited facilities (after Thailand). The Indian Medical Tourism market is expected to grow from its current size of USD 3 billion to USD 7-8 billion by 2020,” Grant Thornton India’s National Managing Partner Vishesh C Chandiok said.

Globalization has promoted a consumerist culture, thereby promoting goods and services that can feed the aspirations arising from this culture. This has had its effect in the health sector too, with the emergence of a private sector that thrives by servicing a small percentage of the population that has the ability to “buy” medical care at the rates at which the “high end” of the private medical sector provides such care. This has changed the character of the medical care sector, with the entry of the corporate sector. Corporate run institutions are seized with the necessity to maximize profits and expand their coverage. These objectives face a constraint in the form of the relatively small size of the population in developing countries that can afford services offered by such institutions. In this background, corporate interests in the Medical Care sector are looking for opportunities that go beyond the limited domestic “market” for high cost medical care. This is the genesis of the “medical tourism” industry.

Medical Tourism as an Industry