As America’s meandering healthcare debate takes another turn, look beyond Washington, way beyond. Thousands of Americans every year go overseas for medical treatment that’s often cheaper, more advanced and more attentive than what’s available in the US. Although medical tourism specialists are moving into Central America to be closer to the US market, the epicenter of the global medical travel phenomenon remains Bangkok’s Bumrungrad Hospital. Bumrungrad turned to international patients in the wake of the 1997 Asian economic crisis that began in Thailand, and the current global recession, which dramatically slowed growth in medical travel, hit the hospital in the midst of a US$57 million construction and renovation project focused on the international market. In Bangkok, I interviewed Bumrungrad’s CEO Mack Banner for Asia Times about how Bumrungrad got to the top of the medical tourism pyramid and how it plans to stay there. While politicians fiddle and patients get burned, Americans’ best bet for affordable, quality medical care right now is in Bangkok.
Totally globalized native New Yorker and former broadcast news producer Muhammad Cohen is author of Hong Kong On Air
Tags: Asia Times, Bangkok, Bangkok hospitals, Bumrungrad Hospital, globalization of medical care, Hong Kong, Hong Kong On Air, Mack Banner, medical care in Bangkok, medical care in Thailand, medical tourism, medical travel, Patients Beyond Borders, Thai hospitals, Thailand, tourism in Thailand, US healthcare reform
Muhammad Cohen 
March 29, 2010 at 12:36 pm |
What about Americans going to Cuba for top notch medical treatment? After all, it”s just a few miles off. Much cheaper than going to Thailand, for instance. Another side benefit would be a softening in the perceptions of Americans seeking medical care but still supporting the US embargo to that country.
April 1, 2010 at 5:13 pm |
Good thought, but not exactly supporting the US embargo. I brushed up on my Spanish in 1993, thinking Clinton would end the embargo. I’m still waiting. You underscore another reason why the embargo is such a loser for all sides.