With the arrival of Chinese tourists following the inauguration of direct weekend charter flights between Taiwan and mainland China on July 4, the island`s medical tourism industry is looking up. Some travel agencies and leisure service providers here are (or will be) cooperating with local private hospitals and clinics to offer medical tourism programs to Chinese and foreign tourists.
Insiders believe that Taiwan`s medical care approaches advanced-country standards and will thus attract Chinese tourists who are interested in physical examinations or medical treatment during their stay on the island. With this added source of revenue, Taiwan`s medical tourism industry is projecting a market value of NT$3 billion (US$96.77 million at NT$31:US$1) this year. The figure is expected to soar to NT$18 billion (US$580.65 million) in 2009.
Quoting "Patients Beyond Borders," a guidebook of global medical-care information, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CHIER), Taiwan`s leading think tank, says that the world`s market value for medical tourism is currently around US$20 billion a year and will double to US$40 billion in 2010.
In recent years, increasing numbers of patients from the advanced countries have been traveling abroad for medical care. The United States, for example, witnessed a total of 150,000 patients seeking overseas medical treatment in 2006 and the number doubled to 300,000 last year.
The main reason why Americans choose overseas medical treatment is reportedly high prices at home. Most Americans who engage in medical tourism do so to save money-understandably so, since the cost differential between medical procedures in the U.S. and foreign countries can be huge. For instance, the typical cost of a coronary bypass ranges from US$55,000 to US$86,000 in the U.S., compared with US$7,000 to US$7,500 in India and US$15,000 to US$16,000 in Thailand.
The favored countries for medical care among American patients include such English-speaking Asian nations as India, Singapore, and Thailand, plus neighboring Mexico and Costa Rico. The most popular procedures for overseas medical treatment are dental work, heart surgery, orthopedics, fertilization, neurosurgery, cosmetic surgery, cancer treatment, and LASIK eye repair. A patient who wants hip- or knee-replacement surgery will pay US$30,000 to US$50,000 more in the U.S. than in the foreign countries mentioned above.
Shorter Waiting Time
Another advantage of overseas medical treatment is shorter waiting time. In Canada alone, there were reportedly almost 800,000 patients waiting for surgery in 2005.
Singapore is believed to have been the first Asian country to promote medical tourism for foreigners. Today, 400,000 of the 5.71 million tourists who arrive in the city-state each year go there for medical treatment, generating about US$2,500 per patient or a total of around US$950 million annually. Taiwan hopes to attract some of that revenue for itself.
The cost (and quality) of medical treatment varies among different Asian countries. The charge for coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery is about US$58,065 in the U.S., less than US$16,129 in Singapore, and only US$10,323 in Taiwan. A physical checkup goes for US$1,935.5 in the U.S.; in Taiwan and Singapore, it will set you back only US$484.
A senior official at the Hsiuchuan Memorial Hospital, a prestigious local private hospital in central Taiwan, suggests that the island`s hospitals should cooperate with travel agencies to seek out target tourists and map out medical-tourism service packages for them.
In May the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), a government-backed trade-promotion organization, organized a mission composed of representatives from 12 leading hospitals here, including Veterans General Hospital and Shin Kong Wu Ho Su Memorial Hospital, to solicit Chinese tourists for medical treatment in Taiwan.
Hung Tzu-jen, deputy director of Shin Kong`s health examination department, notes that more and more mainland Chinese are suffering from diseases caused by the aftermath of rapid economic development and so need checkups. However, China`s medical resources can hardly meet the medical-treatment needs of the massive population there. This situation offers opportunities to Taiwan`s hospitals and clinics.
Working With Chinese Partners
Shin Kong and Cathay General Hospital, both leading private hospitals in Taiwan with strong support from their life-insurance-oriented conglomerates, are already promoting medical tourism in cooperation with Chinese partners. Shin Kong has formed a strategic alliance with Hainan Airlines and Cathay with China Eastern Airlines with the aim of mapping out "three in one" packages that combine life insurance, airline flights, and medical care.
The Cathay Life Insurance Co., a sister company of Cathay General Hospital, has cooperated with China Eastern Airlines in the credit card business and now the hospital is planning to offer health checkups to China Eastern`s Taiwan-bound passengers.
The Shin Kong Life Insurance Co., a sister company of Shin Kong Hospital, is studying the possibility of offering health checkups to the customers of its reinvested life insurance firm in China. Shin Kong Hospital plans to promote two medical tourism itineraries for Chinese travelers that will combine sightseeing and health checkups in one package. One of the itineraries is a four-day, three-night trip costing NT$80,000 (US$2,581), and the other is an eight-day, seven-night package priced at NT$100,000 (US$3,226).
The Taipei Municipal Wan Fang Hospital has already provided medical services to more than 100 Taiwanese businessmen who live in China and returned home for the March presidential election this year. Each of the travelers spent an average of NT$40,000 (US$1,290) on medical care at the hospital. In addition, the hospital recently began cooperating with travel agencies in offering three Taiwan itineraries that provide health checkups to Chinese tourists during their stay on the island. The hospital boasts that it has enough of these checkups booked to keep it busy through August.
The Min-Sheng Hospital and E-Da Hospital, two private Taiwanese hospitals, also show great interest in the medical tourism market.
Min-Sheng is located near the Taoyuan International Airport and believes that this advantage will make it especially attractive to Chinese tourists. Min-Sheng officials say that Chinese tourists can take a quick health checkup at the hospital just after they land or just before they enplane to leave the island.
Hospitals and a Hotel Too
E-Da, which is situated in Taiwan`s southern port city of Kaohsiung, intends to build a five-start hotel close to the hospital so that it can attract tourists and patients alike. E-Da executives say that their charge for cancer screening and a checkup is about 30% lower than that of hospitals in northern Taiwan.
TIENS Group, China`s largest direct sales enterprise, also sees lucrative opportunities in the medical tourism market and plans to cooperate with a private hospital in Taiwan to explore the medical tourism market here. TIENS currently has about three million sales people in China, all of them potential customers of the group`s medical tourism programs. The Group intends to organize Taiwan package tours that combine job training, sightseeing, and medical treatment for its people.
TIENS also plans to establish a production base and global job-training center in Taiwan so as to further expand its direct sales market in Southeast Asia, Japan, South Korea, and Europe. In July of 2006 the company signed a strategic alliance accord with the Chang Gung Biotechnology Corp., an affiliate of the Formosa Plastics Group, to sell Chang Gung`s health products.
Taiwanese government agencies are ready to give a hand to the medical tourism industry. Chiang Shih-huang, deputy director general of the Bureau of Foreign Trade (BOFT), affirms that his bureau can organize missions to promote Taiwan`s medical tourism abroad and that it can help cultivate foreign language personnel to help the industry attract foreign customers.
Chiang emphasizes that Taiwan`s external trade has been heavily dependent on the manufacturing industry in the past and that it is now time to place more emphasis on the export of services, which today account for 70% of the island`s GDP. He believes that medical tourism is one of the key service-industry sectors that can be promoted.
Huang Jun-chang, a ranking official at the Department of Health under the Executive Yuan (Cabinet), says that the inauguration of direct air links between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait is a turning point for the development of the island`s medical tourism industry. Taiwan, he urges, must now seize the opportunity to introduce its sophisticated medical care to Chinese tourists.
Comparison of Medical Charges Between Taiwan and Other Countries Unit:NT$ | Medical procedure | Singapore | Malaysia | Thailand | U.K. | U.S. | Taiwan | CABG | 480,000 | 450,000 | 390,000 | 1.5 M. | 1.8 M. | 320,000 | Knee replacement | 300,000 | 270,000 | 300,000 | 750,000 | 420,000 | 180,000 | Hip replacement | 330,000 | 300,000 | 300,000 | 900,000 | -- | 193,000 | Health checkup | 15,000 | 9,000 | 7,500 | 135,000 | 60,000 | 15,000 |
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(by Judy Li)
