By For quite a while Korea has been talking about making their country a “medical tourism hub” and starting in May they will try to make this a reality:
Hospitals will be allowed directly to seek foreign patients from May as part of South Korea’s efforts to become Asia’s new medical tourism hub, officials said Tuesday.
“We expect about 300 billion won (221 million dollars) in revenue this year in this sector, which will grow fast thanks to our aggressive overseas marketing to be legalised this week,” said Lee Young-Ho, a marketing director of the Global Healthcare Business Centre.
The centre, which is controlled by the health ministry, is forming a network of hospitals and travel agencies which will be officially allowed to seek patients abroad under a law which takes effect Friday.
“We expect more than 40 local travel agencies and hundreds of hospitals and clinics to apply for state licences,” Lee told AFP.
He forecast that about 50,000 foreigners would visit South Korea for treatment this year compared to 27,480 in 2008.
“In 2013 about 200,000 foreign patients are expected to come,” Lee said, adding foreign residents are excluded from the data. [AFP]
I would like to know how they determined these predictions because it just sounds like someone is making up numbers? Anyway this is actually an area I think Korea could do well at considering the relatively high level of healthcare in Korea and cheap costs compared to other advanced nations.
12:58 am on April 30th, 2009 1
I will agree Korea has all the high tech, cutting edge, miracle technology, highly trained professional doctors and reasonable prices. I just hope all the procedures they are hawking are out-patient. Any American who (has visited or) has had to stay in a Korean hospital has likely developed a little medically related culture shock. The good patient had best have someone (usually family) there to get their food, help them to the bathroom, monitor their status, etc. That is why those little pads with legs are provided, so your care taker can sleep with you. The western concept of nurses seems to be alien. All these ladies do is dispense medicine. Now, I am aware you may hire caretakers for some fee to handle these things for you, but I wonder how well that works. Fortunately I’ve never been in this situation and hope I never find myself in a Korean hospital. I consider some of the conditions I’ve seen in these places borderline medieval. Not every hospital in Korea is Suwon Teaching Hospital, by a long shot.
I’m aware America has issues with our medical system, namely astronomical costs. At least however, there is a button you can push if you have a problem and, presumably, someone will answer the call instead of leaving you to rot or writhe in your own mess.
1:51 am on April 30th, 2009 2
Believe it or not, I think the Koreans have a good health care system. They do try to bleed you of a little more cash sometimes, but it's still not that bad.
However, Korea will only be a hub of hubs.
5:53 am on April 30th, 2009 3
O.K. Here is the deal with the Korean medical system.
If you have a small problem, it rocks. Even without insurance, it is shockingly cheap. With insurance, it is bordering on free… none of that deductible and co-payment scam. Break a leg, scratch your cornea, get a zit? No problem.
Even glasses are shockingly cheap… although you can expect a half-arsed examination with only adequate results… unless you understand how the exam works and you can assist it by giving the correct responses… don't expect them to be caringly pulled from you.
Frequently, because it is cheap-to-free, small problems are cheaply taken care of before they become big expensive problems… something the American medical travesty should study carefully.
Now for the downside.
Korean doctors take a look, form an opinion, prescribe a treatment and move on. Most of the time, this is fine. Sometimes, this is not. In the States, your deductible and co-payment (usually) insure the doctor ran every possible (and even unnecessary) test.
In Korea, a substandard, uncaring, preoccupied or hungover doctor might misdiagnose your problem as heartburn in the 5 minutes he spends with you and then send you on your way… while an alien embryo gnaws away at your liver.
Elective procedures have their own advantages and disadvantages. They are relatively cheap and generally very satisfactory. Unlike American doctors, Korean doctors may not communicate well… meaning expectations and results may not be on the same level… and foreign patients may consider the doctor uncaring because their habit is not to explain themselves or their actions to the patient. This even bugs me with doctors I know… I get a lot of humming and hawing but I never feel I get a straight answer.
Price/service-wise, I'm not sure Korea can compete with India (where there are fantastic medical resorts) or, maybe even Thailand (at least for sex changes). The Philippines certainly has cheap dental work by American-trained dentists who communicate well.
From tattoo removal to refractive surgery, I can answer a lot of questions about the Korean medical system if anybody has them. I am a firm believer that a lot of military ho's should get their tramp stamps removed while they are here.
When I came to Korea, I worked at a research hospital for 5 years before opening my first bar. I currently do 6 hours of volunteer work at various clinics each week just to keep up on current procedures, 2 hours at my old hospital free-of-charge for social reasons and I teach an optics class once a week at a medical university to optometry graduate students (for which I am paid too well plus I get to play with the nursing students from 3 floors down).
6:03 am on April 30th, 2009 4
"However, Korea will only be a hub of hubs."
1:44 pm on April 30th, 2009 5
Korea, the Hub of Hubs
2:14 pm on April 30th, 2009 6
Hangook. Hub of Hubris.
3:13 pm on April 30th, 2009 7
My experience with the Korean health system has been the few times I have been to St. Mary's hospital in Uijongbu. I found that hospital to be very good and have no complaints. My wife went there occasionally as well and I was always amazed by how cheap the bills were.
5:00 pm on April 30th, 2009 8
Hub of…Medicine?…
It its unsatiated quest to become a Hub of things other than human trafficking and prostitution, Korea now seeks to expand into the medical field, to include “medical tourism.”
SEOUL, South Korea — In this city’s Apgujeong district, f…
4:48 pm on April 30th, 2009 9
I agree 100% with your experinces. However, my point is what happens when you have to be checked in, when you cannot care for yourself? I agree, it's hard to beat out-patient services for price and quality. It's the in-patient services which are the problem.
8:04 pm on April 30th, 2009 10
If you want the kind of care to which you are referring – similar to that given in an American hospital – all you have to do is ask for it and be willing to pay for it (of course – it isn't free). Even with the additional cost – it is still way cheaper than an American hospital.
11:08 pm on May 13th, 2009 11
Have heard a lot about korean system they are fantastic at their systems and have proven best at their levels
3:22 am on October 28th, 2009 12
It is nice to know South Korea’s is one of the most medical tourism hubs of Asia. I heard they offer highly specialized surgeries, diagnostic facilities, therapies and any medical treatment not just at a fraction of the cost, but with better facilities in terms of patient comfort and hospitality.
3:46 am on October 28th, 2009 13
The US can learn a lot from the Korean system. Our system way too expensive, and will probably only get worse with any new system passed by congress. I don’t have a chart but from comparing similiar procedures and bills from the US and Korea I estimate that the same procedure done in the US cost about 20 times more than if done in Korea.
8:53 pm on December 11th, 2009 14
Healthcare in America is ultra costly because of the way we spend. Medicare might be a good example. Someone can buy a pill for 4 bucks when it should have cost the person 100 bucks easy. Who paid for the other 96? Some old ladies hoard boxes and boxes of medicine that they never use, but won't refuse. My grandmother passed for few minutes a few months back, and she received a brand new wheelchair for no reason at all. (I have friends who are pharmacists and nurses entertain me with their experience).
I'm told that Korean healthcare covers most things, but you're still expected to pay a few things out of your own pocket. A homeless man couldn't walk into a hospital and be entitled to random treatments. In America a person with private insurance could demand dozens of things that he doesn't really need. Hospitals and insurance companies fear litigation enough to cater to their sense of entitlement. Patients never ask about prices (unless out of state or something) on services or medicines, with insurance paying majority of it. The poor can take advantage of medicaid and other short term programs that's VERY generous.
Aren't most other things (housing, food, internet) cheaper in Korea or Japan because they don't have to deal with middlemen and high cost? Like labor cost, workers entitlement, strict certification / regulation requirement, govt regulations? At least compared to America? You can't build a treehouse here in LA without 100 groups having their say and the cost nearing hundreds of millions of dollars.
Korean businesses in Koreatown often employ cheap non unionized Latino workers and have bases of op in China. They pay workers in cash under the table. No one really cares.