It seems a far-fetched claim to make, but if you listen to the Department of Tourism’s Betty Nelle, she has a compelling argument for how the country’s plastic surgeons will help reverse the tide of overseas Filipino workers: Medical tourism.
Last year, the country received at least $200 million from foreigners coming to the country specifically to use Filipino doctors, dentists and cosmetic surgeons. By 2015, they want to increase 2009’s 100,000 to one million — which would represent at least $2 billion to the economy.
“If medical tourism is really to succeed it would be one way of bringing back a lot of our medical practitioners who have gone abroad,” the DOT product research and development director says.
“Medical tourism really contributes a lot to the economy… it’s big business.”
The essential ingredients
The country has all the right ingredients to be a good medical tourism destination, she says.
It is cheaper than many other destinations, people are fluent in English, there are well-trained doctors, modern facilities, Filipino nurses and doctors are renowned for their nurturing manner, and there is very little waiting time at medical facilities.
The Philippines also has the cheapest hotel room rates throughout Asia, medical check-ups are the second cheapest (behind India), and it has some of the cheapest rates for cosmetic surgery.
Many of the tourists, who come primarily from the United States, Japan, Korea and the Middle East, come for cosmetic surgery.
“I think we’re rather good at it,” Nelle says.
Middle Eastern tourists are particularly lucrative, on account of the way they travel.
“When they come here they really spend a lot, because they come with their families, they stay in hotels, they travel a lot, they do a lot of shopping,” she says.
Most tourists divide into two categories: those who come from other countries because their own do not have adequate health facilities, and those who come simply because it is cheaper.
For example, residents of Micronesian states such as Guam and Nauru choose the Philippines for essential medical treatment because they must go overseas and choose somewhere close by and affordable.
But even Westerners are seeking refuge in the country’s medical care.
“In the United States the cost of insurance is becoming very prohibitive so a lot of them say that even without insurance it’s cheaper to come to Asia and have your medical treatment here than it is to buy insurance in the US,” Nelle says.
Residents from countries with public health systems will also choose to pay lower private health costs in the Philippines than sit on public waiting lists.
Phil Star