Rising Star: Medical Tourism in Israel

Hillel Fendel

Israel is becoming a major player in the world of medical tourism, which brought in $40 million in 2006.. Ronny Linder-Ganz summed up the phenomenon in a Haaretz article last week, writing, "As part of the world's transformation into a small global village, the phenomenon of medical tourism has picked up in the past few years: Increasingly, patients who have trouble obtaining or affording medical care in their home countries seek cheaper or better alternatives elsewhere."

Many thousands of visitors have come to Israel to undergo medical procedures in recent years. Linder-Ganz noted that in 2006 alone, "some 15,000 foreigners flew to Israel for complex procedures such as bone marrow transplants, heart surgery and catheterization, oncological and neurological treatments, rehabilitation after a car accident and more."

Amitai Rotem, director of marketing at Hadassah, is quoted as saying that while bypass surgery costs $120,000 in the U.S. for those without insurance, "at Hadassah the procedure costs $35,000, and that includes all the necessary arrangements, such as airfare, accommodations and food for both patient and family."

Similarly, in-vitro fertilization (IVF) costs up to $3,500 in Israel, compared to $16,000-$20,000 in the U.S.

Hadassah recently launched a $20,000 international Internet campaign to increase the number of medical tourists, and other hospitals, both private and state-run, actively pursue this up-and-coming resource as well.

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