Why In Israel

Why In Israel?

medical tourism in israel

Israel is quickly becoming as more than a small hit in the field of health tourism: thousands of

visitors have been arriving in Israel in the past few years to perform medical procedures. For example, in 2006 alone about 15,000 patients arrived in Israel from around the world to undergo intricate procedures such as bone marrow transplants, heart surgeries and catheterization, oncologic and neurosurgical procedures, car accident rehabilitation and more.

Tourists have earned the state no less than 40 million dollars for the medical procedures, accommodations, travelling and the shopping they and their families have done during their

stay in israel.
What makes Israel an attractive destination for the health tourists? "we get people from different countries for different reasons". Says Amitay Rotem, marketing director of Hadassah medical center. "take for example the residents of Cyprus, Bulgaria and other countries, which even though have a high level of medicine, do not always have the necessary specialty fields – bone marrow transplant for example is not performed in Cyprus".
"in addition, the Americans come here because the can receive high quality medical service for a price lower by hundreds of percentages than in the US. An American that does not have medical insurance will pay 120 thousand dollars for a bypass surgery in the US. In Hadassah it will cost him 35 thousand dollars – an amount that also includes the expenses for all the arrangements such as flights, accommodations, food for him and his family. Thus, despite of all the additional expenses he will pay less than a third of the price in the US".

The fertility and IVF fields are also an attractive factor for health tourism: Israel is known for its high success rates in fertilization and the cost is significantly lower. 3,000-3,500 dollar for fertilization is Israel in comparison to 16-20 thousand dollars in the US.
"the level of medicine in Israel and the health care system in the country has a very positive image" add Ina Bergman, the manager of the health tourism in Rambam medical center which treats about 1,000 health tourists a year. "Israel has excellence centers – fields in which the Israeli experts are known for throughout the world – for example Orthopedics which is very developed in the country because of the experience, sadly, with trauma".
And then there is the Dead Sea – the most famous resort in the world for Psoriasis patients. The resort draws thousands of psoriasis patients from around the world a year that stay for as long as a month. The Germans, for example, subsidize the flight and stay at the Dead Sea in some cases through their health care system.