Medical Tourism

[twoplanekid]

After reading in the paper today how the Sumter Commissioners approved an updated county Tourism Strategic Plan that would include medical tourism for the first time as part of the marketing strategy, my curiosity got the best of me to go to the Sumter County web site to find additional information.

The details of the new plan are found here with reference to medical tourism found on page 11.
Dropbox - SumterTourismPlan.pdf - Simplify your life (https://www.dropbox.com/s/259sj2rn95o5so3/SumterTourismPlan.pdf?dl=0)

As I have never attended a draft horse pull, I accessed that information here which is a little out of date.
Dropbox - 7. Grant Application_Southern Draft Horse Association Pulls Event.pdf - Simplify your life (https://www.dropbox.com/s/9nxwpujv5twrl5z/7.%20Grant%20Application_Southern%20Draft%20Horse% 20Association%20Pulls%20Event.pdf?dl=0)

I never would have thought about medical tourism. The two files take a little time to load as they are large pdf files.

[GrumpyOldMan]

Interesting read.

Apparently it is very advance care options that are the main draw to Florida from the International community.

My wife and I have both flown to Ecuador to get medical and dental care. On average care there is excellent, and costs about 1/4 what it costs here. Prior to get into the VA healthcare system we had no healthcare for several years. Some dental work, implants and crowns were quoted by our dentist at $18,000. We flew to Ecuador, stayed in a BnB for a month, had the work done and flew home for about $4,000.

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

We have draft horse pulls up here at our annual agricultural fair. I personally find it barbaric but it's definitely a crowd-pleaser for those who are into it. I love the idea of town/county agricultural fairs, in general though.

As for medical tourism - I thought the point of it was that people leave the country to get procedures done, that are cost-prohibitive in the USA. Dental tourism in Mexico is HUGE, and hip replacement surgery overseas is very popular.

What you might have to pay $3000 per tooth for a dental implant in the USA, you might only pay $500 in Mexico. And these are American dentists who work on the other side of the border to avoid dealing with all the costs of running a dental practice in the states.

You can find plenty of state of the art medical care all over the USA currently, with some of the best specialists in the world. I can't imagine a patient thinking "oh hey I think I'll get a heart valve replacement in Sumter Florida, instead of at Mass General or Yale-New Haven." Unless there's a SIGNIFICANT cost savings for the same procedure and same quality physicians doing the work, I can think of little reason to consider Sumter County as a destination spot for medical tourism.