Consider the following:
• The safety and quality of care available in many offshore facilities is no longer quite an issue: Organizations
including the Joint Commission International USA (JCI) and others are accrediting these facilities.
• Health care costs are increasing at eight percent per year – well above the Consumer Price Index (CPI),
thus eating into corporate profits and per capita disposable income.
• Consumers are willing to travel to obtain care that is both safe and less costly. In fact, two in five survey
respondents said they would be interested in pursuing treatment abroad if quality was comparable and the
savings were 50 percent or more.
By contrast, inbound medical tourism and medical tourism across state lines will continue to be an interesting
opportunity for specialty hubs with medical treatment unavailable elsewhere in the world or in a community setting.
In 2007, an estimated 750,000 Americans traveled abroad for medical care. As depicted in Figures 2 and 3, this number is estimated to increase to six million by 2010.1,2 Accordingly, the base-case estimate
for the annual growth rate in outbound medical tourism is estimated at 100 percent from 2007 to 2010. Increases beyond this time, however, could be tempered by several factors:
• Supply capacity constraints in foreign countries
• U.S. health plans’ possible decision to not cover services provided
offshore
• U.S. providers’ possible decision to compete more aggressively
with outbound programs
• Potential government policies that might curtail demand.
In the year 2000, the World Health Organization (WHO) ranked Singapore as the 6th best health care system in the world, much higher than the US, Canada or UK.
Hospitals and medical centers in Singapore are mostly government run or public facilities, while a few are privately owned like the Raffles Hospital and Parkway hospitals.
All Singaporean hospitals offer state-of-the-art healthcare services and facilities. They are serviced by English-speaking and US or Europe trained medical practitioners and staff.
Like the neighboring Indian hospitals , most specialty centers in Singapore cater to international medical tourists, and practically all of them offer high end quality healthcare. Most major hospitals in Singapore have attained international accreditation from the Joint Commission International (JCI), ISO or OHSAS. In 2011, Singapore had 18 JCI accredited hospitals.
