CBS news online edition had a story about the cost of singleton births versus twins and the numbers were pretty sobering. The story says a normal delivery costs an average of $21,000 while twins cost $105,000 and multiple births beyond twins skyrocket even further. I thought those numbers were pretty high, even for the normal delivery of a single baby. So I checked over at Healthcare Blue Book and they say the average fair price for a normal delivery is $6,152. That’s a far cry from the cost CBS is quoting. I wonder who is closer to the true average cost of a normal delivery.

Regardless, my interest is mainly in how the U.S. prices compare to prices at Thailand’s private hospitals. Although some of the major hospitals post prices for typical procedures it isn’t always easy to find them. Bumrungrad Hospital is probably the best when it comes to making medical procedure prices easy to find on their website. They have their Real Cost section of the site but also link over to their packages and promotions. They currently offer a normal delivery package for 59,900 Thai baht, which is about US$1,930 at today’s exchange rate. Considering Bumrungrad is usually among the most expensive of Thai private hospitals, that gives a pretty good indication of the massive differential in cost between the U.S. and Thailand, and we are talking about top shelf care with luxury appointments at Bumrungrad.

It is possible with a little Googling to find samples of somewhat recent costs at other hospitals. For example, in August 2012 one forum poster used St.Louis, known to be rather pricey by Thai standards, for 3 nights with a C-section and with everything included in came to 47,000 Thai baht. Seems rather cheap compared to the 93,000 baht that Bumrungrad quotes for a C-section. Maybe St. Louis doesn’t deserve the high price reputation, or maybe Bumrungrad pricing really is spiraling.

Elsewhere there has been mention of a complete package of pre and post natal care and C-section at Samitivej (also known for its high prices) was 100,000 bath. At Bangkok Christian Hospital a C-section and three nights in the hospital was 60,000 baht. A lesser known (among non-Thais) medical center called BCare Medical Center which has a comprehensive pre and post natal package with normal delivery for 24,900 baht. The link is here, although the page is only in Thai even when you click on the link for English so they aren’t helping themselves with attracting foreign patients.

A new report has just been released titled “Thailand Medical Tourism Market (Spending) Analysis & Forecast” which covers current statistics and estimates to the year 2018. The report isn’t free, so if you are curious and have 948 Euros (whoa, what?) you could pick up a copy. No doubt reports like this are costly to research and produce, but most people in the industry already have access to a lot of information. Maybe it is more of a convenience fee to pull it all together in a nicely packaged report.

They do give a couple of teaser stats in the sales pitch, including the expectation that Thailand will receive more than one million medical tourists in 2013. They also list the top 15 sources of medical tourists to Thailand as:

1. Japan
2. United States
3. South Asia Region
4. Britain
5. Middle East
6. Asian Region
7. Taiwan & China
8. Germany
9. Australia
10. France
11. South Korea
12. Canada
13. East Europe
14. Scandinavia
15. Other Countries

The table of contents indicates they have a breakdown of each source country/region’s tourists by visits and spending. That might be quite valuable if you have a inbound medical tourism destination and want to cater to particular nationalities.

One thing I find surprising based on my limited observations is that Middle Eastern medical tourists are down at number five on the list. The last few times I visited Bumrungrad Hospital it appeared that that was the single most numerous patient demographic. I had read previously that the hospital had even opened a special wing with special staff to cater to this group.

The list in this research report says Japanese are the most numerous medical tourists to Thailand. I wonder what the backstory is on that. I don’t see much written about Japan’s health care industry. The U.S. gets all the headlines currently while the U.K., Canada and some EU countries are often mentioned. It might be worth some research to see what is driving so many Japanese to visit Thailand for medical treatment.

At least it seems that way. Today I was reading on a non-healthcare related forum a lot of comments from U.S. residents about how badly they have been screwed over by Obamacare. Not because they have to sign up for it, but because as a result of the new law the insurance plans they had were canceled or drastically modified with associated huge increases in cost. Since I am not subject to the disaster I have not followed the details but it seems that the abomination that is Obamacare requires all insurance plans to cover things like pregnancy related services even if you are a man and obviously cannot use those services. There are other things that you don’t want, like coverage for drug rehabilitation. Premiums are forced to be the same for men and women. What an abomination.

But that’s not the point of this post. When one commenter talked about the shellacking he is going to take for the rotator cuff surgery he needs I decided to take a look at how the costs in Thailand would compare. Over at Healthcare Bluebook they say the fair price for that procedure would be US$6,794. Then I checked out Bumrungrad Hospital’s “Real Cost” page for that. Whoa, US$10,512. What is happening here? Are Bumrungrad’s prices skyrocketing that much? Obviously nobody is going to make trip from the U.S. to Thailand to pay more for surgery. Prices have always been among the highest at Bumrungrad – somebody has to pay for the fancy decor. But are they pricing themselves out of the market.

Unfortunately, I cannot easily get a price comparison from Siriraj, Thailand’s premier orthopedic hospital. Certainly it is much lower cost. Past comparisons were one-half to one-third the price of Bumrungrad. But in this case it better be one-tenth the price or I am missing something. Maybe it is a significantly different procedure????

I saw the headline “Five Medical Tourism Myths” that is the title of an article over at the IMJT blog and it caught my eye because not long ago I published here an article that included three common myths about medical tourism to Thailand. So I jumped over and read it but alas, they are writing about a different facet of the industry. The IMJT story is from the point of view of medical tourism professionals whereas my story is from the point of view of medical tourists themselves.

If you recall from my story I pointed out that 1) it is a myth that there is no recourse for medical malpractice in Thailand, 2) when people say there is no followup care when you have a procedure done in Thailand they are actually saying they didn’t stick around for it because indeed all the followup care you need is available, and 3) patients wrongfully assume that English is widely spoken by medical staff in Thai hospitals. These are different issues than a medical tourism promoter is pushing when they talk about growth rate and accredidation and building fancy facilities to attract foreign patients. Those myths do indeed seem to be a lot of hype and not so much substance.

But then I see in the comments someone posts their list of “myths”. There are nine of them. Here’s one now:

Patients traveling abroad can save up to to 90% on a procedure, including their travel expenditures

Um, that is no myth my friend. It isn’t true in all cases but it certainly is true in many cases. In fact in some cases it is more than a 90% savings.  It is easy to make such claims so I don’t pay much attention unless there is some evidence to back it up. I have read a number of cases that do include credible looking evidence. But beyond that, I have my own case when I had foot surgery at Siriraj Hospital. It wasn’t until recently that I did a price comparison and found that the same procedure (as best as I can determine) in the U.S. would have cost 20 times what I paid in Thailand. I got the comparitive cost from Health Care Bluebook here. If I added in the cost of travel and some extras then I would probably be looking at about a 90% lower price. And this was at Thailand’s preeminent orthopedic hospital under the care of one of the country’s top podiatrists. You might say “so what, big fish in small pond in a country like Thailand” and you would be wrong.

Another so-called myth that commenter listed was this:

Patients in UK travel to avoid long waiting periods

I don’t know the statistics but I do know some people who came from the UK to Thailand for treatment for that very reason. It’s been discussed on forums a great deal over the years. So what’s going on? A small handful of shills are making the rounds of forums posting this myth to try to boost medical tourism? Also, the UK isn’t the only source. I have spoken with a few Canadians who came to Thailand so they could walk in and get a medical procedure without a wait.

Another of his “myths” is this one:

By encouraging its presence in the medical tourism market, a country can stimulate its economic growth and create employment opportunities.

You know, that is exactly what Thailand did back in the 1990’s. Now days there are several hundred thousand medical tourists per year visiting Thailand. Seems like that would in fact create employment opporunities and benefit the economy. Maybe the commenter is saying that it can no longer be done. Or maybe that people shouldn’t expect quick results, which is indeed true; it took many years for Thailand’s medical tourism sector to grow to what it is today.

And what about this statistic:

Thailand, India and Singapore accounted for 60% of the total revenue of the Asian region in 2012.

Is that a myth? It actually seems pretty low. Other than South Korea which is a big destination for cosmetic surgery, what other country in Asia do people go to for medical treatment?