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Austin, TX, United States, 04/10/2008 – Responding to recent testimony given before the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging on high health insurance costs and late middle-aged Americans, Poonam Dhawan, founder and CEO of The MedTrava Group, predicted that the number of Americans choosing medical care outside of the U.S. will exceed one million in as little as two years. Texas-based MedTrava provides turnkey services for low-cost, top-quality healthcare overseas to American individuals and corporations.
“In 2002, an estimated 150,000 Americans traveled abroad for healthcare,” said Dhawan. “Last year, it more than tripled to 500,000 – and that’s considered a conservative estimate. With the cost of healthcare and insurance skyrocketing, it’s safe to say that that number could reach three to four percent of the U.S. population.”
The reasons are cost and quality, she said, citing examples of medical care in India, where open-heart surgery can cost $8,500 versus $100,000 in the U.S.; a knee replacement can cost $6,000 instead of $48,000; and a facelift is about $5,000 versus $20,000. “The largest share of persons seeking treatment in India will be late middle-agers,” she said, “for the very reasons Ms. Lambrew pointed out.
“In addition, clinical outcomes are on a par with the world’s best centers, due to a large pool of internationally qualified and experienced specialists and super specialists and the latest equipment and infrastructure, Dhawan continued.
Jeanne M. Lambrew, a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress specializing in healthcare policy and research on the uninsured, Medicaid, Medicare, and long-term care appeared before the Committee on April 3 to report on health security for people in late middle age.
“Median out-of-pocket spending on health care among those ages 55 to 64 is over twice as high as that of people ages 35 to 54, 3.5 times higher than people ages 18 to 34, and over ten times higher than that of children,” said Lambrew. She also cited a study by the Urban Institute of Washington D.C. that found that “high out-of-pocket health spending has caused a significant number of older Americans to delay retirement as a means of funding such costs.”
“These people are looking for an alternative that allows them to get the high-quality medical care their families need without going into bankruptcy,” said Dhawan. “When you can save 50 to 80 percent over the cost in the U.S., including travel, it’s an option that’s hard to ignore.”
The MedTrava Group
Based in Austin, Texas, with offices in Hawaii and India, The MedTrava Group provides turnkey medical tourism services for low-cost, top-quality healthcare in India to American individuals and corporations burdened by burgeoning healthcare costs and restrictive healthcare plans. MedTrava’s healthcare provider partners meet the highest standards of care and are internationally acclaimed centers of excellence.
MedTrava has pre-negotiated rates with each of its healthcare provider partners, and has assembled procedure packages that assure its clients substantial savings. MedTrava is fully transparent in its pricing to ensure clients receive the lowest price possible in a single, itemized bill that is often 50% to 80% less than they would pay in the U.S.
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