Medical Tourism in the Philippines

Current Event Log 3

Katie Houser


Medical Tourism in the Philippines


Medical tourism is relatively new term referring to traveling to other countries to have surgery for a fraction of the cost that the same surgery would cost in the U.S. Medical tourism centers are already in India and other countries. On Monday, August 28th 2006, a United States Hospital chain announced that they are planning to build a new Medical tourism center in Cebu City, in the Philippines. The new center will be called American Medical Center Cebu. Cardiovascular Hospitals of America or (CHA) wants to become a leader in a rapidly growing industry. Dr. Phillip S. Chua is the CHA vice president for Far East Operations and also the Chairman of Cardiovascular Surgery at Cebu Doctors University Hospital, which he helped found in 1996. Dr. Chua is a Filipino-American Cardiac Surgeon from Indiana and Las Vegas. Dr. Chua said that CHA would be built to American standards and would be accredited by US Blue Cross/Blue Shield, The International Joint Commission, and US Medicare. Dr. Chua also said that the Philippines is a good fit for Medical Tourism because of their manpower resources and their knowledge of English. Dr. Chua spoke of the many Filipinos living abroad who dream of retiring in their native land, but decide not to because of the lack of good health care.

I chose this topic because medical tourism is a topic I find interesting. It was a complete coincidence that this article happen to be about the Philippines a country we learned a lot about in class this week. I think the medical tourism industry is a good thing for the Philippines and might bring jobs that Filipinos usually have to travel abroad to find. I am concerned about what this could mean for the American health care system. If these foreign medical tourism centers are more affordable the results could be disastrous for Doctors in the United States. Patient care could suffer as well because some of these medical tourism centers could cut corners. This industry needs to be strongly regulated for the global good.


Source: http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=d7fa0aafc2e5343afa034b6972106cc6... 8/29/06