Costa Rica will host the 2011 Medical Travel International Business Summit May 2-4, 2011, in San Jose and Guanacaste provinces. The conference will begin May 2-3 with a series of roundtable discussions and expert lectures in the capital city of San Jose. On May 4, conference attendees will travel to the the North Pacific province of Guanacaste, where they will participate in medical tourism training workshops, and learn about medical tourism projects in this rapidly growing province. "While more than 500 attendees have already confirmed for this global conference, we welcome 'last minute' registrations from insurance companies, human resource professionals and corporate representatives to discover the incredible opportunities in Latin American medical tourism," said Massimo Manzi, executive director of Promed.
The small democratic Central American nation of Costa Rica has managed to achieve a coveted spot among the most attractive locations for medical tourism. While the United States continues to debate the future of national healthcare, Costa Rica offers the world a glimpse into one of the most progressive and advanced healthcare systems worldwide. Currently, 49 million US citizens are not covered by medical insurance and 108 million Americans do not have even basic dental insurance. By 2015, it is estimated that the US will spend 20 per cent of its gross national product on medical services, while a staggering 25 per cent of the population will still lack medical insurance.
Medical tourism represents a critical lifeline to uninsured Americans that cannot afford medical care in the US, as well as those seeking advanced medical procedures that are not available in US hospitals. Medical procedures in many Latin American destinations, including Costa Rica, are routinely one-third the cost of the same procedure in the US. Low-cost, high quality medical care within a short flight from most major US gateways makes medical tourism an important link for those in need of affordable medical procedures and health care. Costa Rica first gained prominence as a medical hot spot when American citizens began to travel to this popular Central American nation for inexpensive medical procedures...generally 50 per cent to 70 per cent less expensive than the same procedures in the US.
Medical tourism gained in popularity in Costa Rica as thousands of happy patients returned to the US and spread the word about their high-quality care, English-speaking doctors, and their incredible tropical vacation, all for a fraction of the price of the same procedures in the US. Inexpensive airfares and Costa Rica's location only three to six hours by plane from most major US gateways has made Costa Rica one of the top medical tourism destinations for North Americans. In fact, some 30,000 "health and medical tourists" visited Costa Rica in 2009. Caribbeannetnews.com