Medical tourism in India: winners and losers.

Patients who travel abroad for medical treatment do so for a variety of reasons. The elite from developing countries seek treatments not available in their own countries. Thus private hospitals in India are seeing an influx of patients from Bangladesh and the Gulf. Patients from the United States seek treatments that cost five to 10 times in their own country. And, as public-funded health insurance is unable to cope with the rising demands of an increasingly aging population, patients from countries such as the United Kingdom and Canada travel to India to beat the huge waiting period for many routine procedures.