Gabriel Senior Launches Travel for Care
As Featured in the McKinsey Alumni Portal
Friday, September 18, 2009
Gabriel Senior (CAR 03-04) has launched a medical travel facilitator firm, Travel for Care.
Medical travel is the booming trend that comes as a logical answer to having a 300% price differential between equally trained doctors and accredited facilities just a short trip apart. Until now, this has been a slowly growing industry that sees less than 50,000 Americans looking mostly for plastic and weight loss surgery in parts of Asia or in inexpensive clinics in Tijuana, Mexico.
With healthcare costs in the United States continuing to rise at higher rates than inflation, more and more American corporations and their workers are being affected each year as their inability to pare these growing expenses to past labor commitments and legacy threaten their very sustainability. This joint problem makes both parties face a difficult choice between giving up work and retirement benefits if the company goes bankrupt or have health plans for them, their loved ones, and retirees diminished or eliminated. Nevertheless, the globalization of healthcare seems to pose an escape valve with treatment abroad.
Cardiovascular Disease, one of the most common causes of death worldwide, gives people very little time before treatment. With healthcare costs in the United States continuing to rise at higher rates than inflation, tens of thousands of Americans are being doomed each year in their ability to face these expenses. Both the short time to come up with the money, and the very high cost of treatment, bring a growing conflict between illnesses and citizens. This population faces a choice between giving up life or economic wellbeing for their loved ones. Even though the uninsured population is a huge issue the U.S. must solve, an escape valve for some is being found abroad.
As weight loss surgery gains popularity worldwide, Mexican bariatric surgeons are seeing the benefits of this trend. The location and affordable prices of México’s weight loss surgery clinics is a great advantage that has allowed them to build lots of experience by logging thousands of cases. Nevertheless, the country’s top surgeons are not just offering more of the same; they are beginning to offer the latest technological advances and techniques as well.
