There are many reasons to visit Europe, but often when we think about people travelling to the continent we presume they are doing so so that they might view the historical landmarks, enjoy the food and cuisine and generally act as tourists. However there’s another reason Americans often travel to Europe – and that’s for their health care. Many people with health conditions it seems choose to travel to Europe for their health care and surgery and to get the very best private health care, and this will often include high profile celebrities and wealthy businessmen.
One recent example was Kobe Bryant who travelled to Germany for an arthritic right knee. On this occasion Kobe chose to journey to Germany so that he could become the recipient to a relatively very new process called ‘regenokine’ which involves using the individual’s own tissue and re-introducing it to the body.
In this case, and in several others, European treatments were chosen simply because they were far advanced and only available on the continent. In other cases however the preference for European doctors and institutions comes down to the difference in quality – and in many cases European institutions are cited as being higher quality.
One reason for this is the national health coverage in many countries from England to Germany. The fact that residents of these countries already pay national insurance for health care, means that the private healthcare on offer would have to be of a very high quality to be worthwhile. This then ensures that the private hospitals in much of Europe are of a particularly high standard and offer enough perks to be worth paying extra for. At the same time these luxury facilities attract the best staff – from around the world in many cases – because they offer high salaries and good working conditions. With some of the best doctors being able to immigrate to other countries, it should come as no surprise that many wealthy patients follow suit.
Finally it’s worth nothing that many European countries offer a relaxed pace of life, pleasant climate and a chance to ‘get away’ from it all. If you are recovering from a serious injury, or battling a life-threatening disease, and if you have the money, why wouldn’t you go abroad to get your treatment?
