Originally published June 23 2005
Some "medical tourists" not touring, just bypassing long waiting lists
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Although medical tourism is gaining rampant popularity, The Vancouver Sun reports some patients just want to bypass the expense and wait times for treatment in North America, and still want to be treated somewhere close to home in case complications arise.
The recent Supreme Court decision approving private health care in Quebec might eventually affect other provinces' waiting lists, but at present there are attractions to what some term "medical tourism."
Personal trainer Blaise Eagleheart makes Fisherman's Cove on the Bay of Bengal sound like a holiday paradise -- the palms, the surf, the beach, even the food.
Firefighter Rod Bieller calls the resort "a beautiful spot," comparable to North American luxury hotels.
Both Victoria men -- a half a year apart -- lounged by the Indian resort's pool, but not in the usual sense.
They were recuperating from radical hip operations not readily available in Canada, spending two weeks at the resort before a 30-hour flight home.
They're a new breed of travelling patient who combine surgery with a stay in an exotic locale.
Some call it "medical tourism," an industry predicted to hit the $1-billion mark in India alone by 2012, as rising health costs and long waiting lists at home send North Americans and Europeans packing.
As well as hard-to-get medical procedures, cosmetic surgery also primes the market for surgical tripping.
Out-of-country locales are anything but exotic for Rick Baker's clients at Timely Medical Alternatives.
They prefer to be as close to home as possible when they do it, says Baker.
His barely year-old company has sent roughly half its 120 clients to American border hospitals.
The rest go to private clinics operating under the radar of the Canada Health Act.
Baker associates medical tourism more with such places as India and Thailand, where "the pitch you get is convalescing on a lovely beach with a maid bringing you drinks with umbrellas in them."
Windsor family physician and Canadian Medical Association president Albert Schumacher is equally skeptical about the term, particularly as applied to those recuperating from invasive surgery.
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