Insurance cos reluctant to cover foreigners' treatment cost

New Delhi: India may have taken a lead in medical tourism, but insurance companies are reluctant to cover the cost of treatment of the foreign patients, which is proving to be a major impediment in development of the sector.

"It is estimated that in 2002 as many as 150,000 medical tourists travelled to India bringing in earnings of USD 300 million," a high-level group of the Planning Commission said in a report.

According to a CII-McKinsey report, this figure would go upto USD two billion by 2012, the group said.

The Indian Government has moved to provide visa facilities for the medical tourists. The main clientele comes from the SAARC countries but an increasing number of NRIs settled in the United States and Britain have also been availing of the healthcare services in India.

There is a good prospect of patients coming from the Middle East in the future.

The main impediment for medical tourists coming from the UK and US for major surgeries is the fact that insurance companies are generally not willing to cover treatment in India, the report said.

However, the cost savings involved in getting treatment done in India is bound to result in the insurance company imposed barriers breaking down in the future.

"Already some hospitals are entering into alliance with international insurance companies for making it possible to send patients to India for treatment," it said.