Health tourism booms in Turkey with Americans preferring Turkish hospitals for low-cost healthcare services

With loss of health insurance accompanying widespread job loss in the United States, more Americans have discovered Turkey’s health tourism to lower their medical expenses. Americans are contributing an important share among health tourism patients, mainly due to low prices. Turkey hosts around 40,000 people in health tourism annually, creating a business volume of $150 million. The country is preferred by people from European Union member countries, but US citizens have also started to show interest after the global crisis. The arriving patient profile has changed amid the crisis and the number of American patients has surpassed the number of Europeans, said Health Tourism Turkey Coordinator Gül Soydan. Many people in the United States have been left without insurance, Soydan said. “If an American chooses to have a complete teeth treatment in the US, the cost is $100,000, but it is at most $30,000. Having realized this advantage, US citizens have been flocking to Turkey for health tourism during the first six months of this year,” Soydan said. A person arriving in Turkey for health tourism spends 12 times more than a regular tourist, according to a report announced in June by the health subcommittee of the Turkish Industrialists' And Businessmen's Association, (TUSIAD). Medical tourism, which has a global volume of $60 billion, is expected to reach $100 billion by the end of 2010, according to the report. Turkey’s health tourism is expected to cover 36 percent of its overall tourism revenues, which totaled $21.9 billion last year. Around 30,000 to 40,000 tourists arrive in Turkey for health tourism, and the goal is to attain 1 million foreign patients and $8 billion in revenue by 2020, the report said. As noted in the TUSIAD report, health tourism can be a strategic area for Turkey, said Dr. Mahir Turan, managing director of the Göztepe Medical Park Hospital in Istanbul. “Turkey may quadruple its business volume in health tourism with a rationalistic strategy. Open-heart surgery, which costs $150,000 in the U.S., is around $12,000 to $15,000 in Turkey.”