By S Gopalakrishnan
Introduction:
Medical tourism refers to traveling within or outside of the home country to access quality health facilities of other states or foreign countries. This kind of term is typically applied to patients traveling from developing countries to developed countries to access treatment for their conditions which either cannot be afforded or does not exist in their domiciles. However, the current scenario has changed. According to the Medical Tourism Index (MTI) for 2020-2021, out of forty-six countries, India has been ranked as the tenth preferred destination for medical tourism.This level of success has been attributed mainly to the cost-effectiveness of the medical surgeries and other health procedures while other factors such as infrastructure, technology, and as some believe, a concoction of Ayurveda with modern medicine, also played important roles. The number of medical tourists in India has been predicted to surge up to 7.3 million people by 2024. This prompted Indian states to develop themselves as prospective destinations with Telangana Chief Minister, A Revanth Reddy, announcing a plan to develop a medical hub in the state of over a thousand acres on June 22, 2024. Cities like Pune and Mysuru are getting endorsed for the creation of such hubs because of their medical landscapes. This article aims to explore how India’s successes in medical tourism can be a key to economic growth and international prestige.
Affordability of Healthcare:
In a Welfare State, healthcare services are supposed to be non-profitable as it is essential to supporting human life. However, in a realistic scenario, it must be made affordable for all sections of society. There is general inequality in the costs of healthcare across countries due to the limits in resources for medical equipment and, in the bigger picture, the appreciating or depreciating value of their respective currencies. India has a significantly lower cost of healthcare (including all sorts of costs such as hospital stay, doctor fees, and aftercare) compared to developed countries. The country provides healthcare services that are priced at about sixty to ninety percent lower compared to healthcare services offered by countries such as the United States (US), Japan, and the United Kingdom because of their lower cost of living compared to the other countries. Hence, patients travel to India to seek specialized treatments at a cheaper rate than the ones offered at their homes. High affordability of healthcare services assures greater consumption of these services which increases the revenue of that healthcare sector. In the long run, the revenue generated from the healthcare sector can be a variable factor in boosting the economic growth of the country. The graph below (Graph 1) illustrates India having the lowest expenditure for healthcare compared to other developed countries, as of 2023. In that year, the total Indian healthcare spending was 180 billion dollars while the per capita spending was around 140 to 160 dollars. This is why medical tourism is booming in India. Complex medical surgeries such as cardiac surgery, organ transplants as well as cancer treatments are eighty percent cheaper than in the US or Europe. A heart bypass surgery in India costs about $7000 compared to $130,000 in the US. This is a difference of $123,000 between both the countries. On the other hand, Graph 2 digs deeper into the costs of healthcare by comparing the costs of certain treatments such as dental implants, heart bypass surgery, hip replacement, and cosmetic surgery, between India and Canada, as of 2024. Based on the data presented by the graph, the costs of medical procedures in India comprise almost twenty percent of the costs of medical procedures in Canada.
Graph 1 (Made in Excel)
Graph 2 (Made in Excel)
Quality of Healthcare:
Along with high affordability, better quality healthcare services can assure a parallel surge in economic growth and economic development. In the case of economic development, a high-quality healthcare sector can assure better standards of human condition and living, lower morbidity rate, and lower mortality rate, thereby preserving a healthy population that can boost the productivity of the country. India has been praised for her “pocket-friendly ‘holistic’ expertise” due to ‘world-class clinical excellence’ and the competencies of her doctors, thereby bringing good clinical outcomes. This can be explained by her performance on Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting procedures (CABG). According to the report on the Medical Tourism Index 2020-2021, India has developed robotic surgeries and other pioneering techniques in cardiology. This specialized field in medicine is leading the healthcare sector in providing high-quality services to patients. Around 120,000 CABG procedures are undertaken in India per year. The country has a good quality of cardiothoracic surgeons with state-of-the-art facilities and equipment leading to a huge demand for heart surgeries, CABG, valve replacements, and other cardiac procedures from foreign patients. Graph 3 proves this thesis by comparing the mean cost, number of surgeries per year for CABG, and the average hospital stay between India and the US. As the graph demonstrates, while the cost of cardiac surgery in the US is $47000, in India it costs $4300, which is a $42,700 or around ninety-one percent decrease in payment. The comparison between the number of surgeries gives a rough idea about the clinical outcomes of India and the US. India has a sixty-five percent lesser number of CABG surgeries compared to the US. On the other hand, the rate of recovery (average hospital stay) in India is four times better than that of the US. This explains two things. Firstly, there is a lesser need for CABG surgeries in India than in the US. Secondly, these surgeries have a better chance of success when compared to the same in the US. All in all, India has a better clinical outcome compared to the US because cardiac surgeries in the former are not only cost-effective but also are of a better quality compared to the latter.
Graph 3 (Made in Excel)
Plans for Healthcare:
Medical Tourism has a bright future for the Indian economy. However, like any sector, the Indian healthcare sector suffers from a few challenges which need to be addressed to gauge the full potential of that sector. Some of these challenges are related to infrastructure, limited quality of services, and unequal hygiene standards. These kinds of obstacles require joint efforts from both the Union government and the state governments as well as key private hospitals and medical colleges. One of the primary challenges lies in the need for better infrastructure. While major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru have well-established medical ecosystems, the overall infrastructure for medical tourism such as transport, accommodation, and other support services needs more work. Patients coming to India for treatment often face difficulties in acquiring medical visas, accessing timely transport due to heavy traffic, and long waiting lines for appointments and other procedures. In 2021, the Government of India announced the Ayush visa to ensure easy access to medical facilities for foreign patients. In 2022, more than 6,50,000 healthcare visas were issued for these patients, resulting in the boom of the medical industry. The government needs to come up with more such schemes to improve the connectivity of the hospitals. The second challenge facing medical tourism in India is the unequal distribution of high-quality healthcare, including state-of-the-art facilities across urban and rural medical establishments. Private hospitals such as Fortis Hospital and Apollo Hospital in metropolitan areas such as Mumbai and Bengaluru are equipped with state-of-the-art facilities such as robotic surgeries and other advanced procedures for Cardiovascular Diseases (CVDs) and an internationally trained staff, which is an advantage. Yet, there is a significant difference between the state of private hospitals and government hospitals in terms of the quality of care provided in different regions. In small towns and rural areas, the standard of private and government hospitals is not at par with those in metropolitan cities. This kind of inconsistency needs to be addressed in case of unforeseen exigencies. The Union government’s accreditation system, such as the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH), ensures that healthcare facilities meet international standards. Private hospitals are also seeking international accreditation with Joint Commission International (JCI), to showcase their commitment to quality care. These measures aid in two ways. Firstly, it improves the medical sector. Secondly, it sends a signal of assurance to foreign patients about the reliability of regional healthcare services. Plans to develop medical hubs in local areas that integrate local hospitals as a network for medical tourism are necessary to boost patient confidence. India needs to develop more such reforms to reduce the inconsistency and overdependence on private care.
Conclusion:
To conclude, medical tourism has not yet reached its potential in India. While the COVID-19 pandemic has revitalized the industry, in subsequent years, the world returning to normalcy will bring global competitiveness to the Indian Market. India can maintain and develop this sector by focusing on reforms at a grassroots level, which is, reforms for local hospitals and medical colleges. Medical tourism presents a very good opportunity for India to engage in diplomacy with the world through holistic and humanistic care.
Author’s Bio:
S Gopalakrishnan is a second-year student, pursuing B.A. (Hons.) Global Affairs at the Jindal School of International Affairs, O.P. Jindal University. His research interests lie in Foreign Policy and Strategy, public policies of different countries, and political philosophy.
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