HOW SHE SEES IT Medical tourism: growth industry in India

By MICHELE MITCHELL
PROVIDENCE JOURNAL
I got in a fight with a monkey in northern India recently. The guard at the temple in Haridwar warned me, in Hindi, to "mind the monkeys."
Unfortunately, I don't speak Hindi. I reacted to my bag's being grabbed by, naturally, grabbing back. A surprised brown monkey tugged again; I tugged back (I actually thought, "He's not so big; I can take him").
I yelled at him, he scratched me, I kept my bag and thought I'd won. I hadn't.
It seems monkey scratches mean a series of five rabies shots. But my unplanned tour of India's hospitals turned into an enlightening experience.
Rishikesh, in the foothills of the Himalayas, had a clinic powered by a generator and a nurse who fiercely stabbed my arm; Calicut, in the south, amid coffee plantations, had a sparkling hospital, where staffers had a smooth injection technique; and Bangalore, the outsourcing and information-technology capital, had a posh facility.
And between the rounds of nurses giggling at me, I noticed something. There were a lot of Westerners in the hospitals, and not because of monkey scratches or traveler's stomach. Many had come from Europe, and they were having all sorts of medical procedures done, from minor operations to heart surgery.
"Medical tourism is one of the fastest-growing areas in India," said Parik Laxminarayan, who has a tour company, Enchanting India. "The doctors are educated overseas, they speak English, and the costs are low, even when you factor in the costs of a plane ticket to get here."
I had gone to India to get a grasp on the economic boom; in fact, the day I arrived, the CIA released a report saying that India and China would be the "main engine of the global economy" by 2020. I expected to see the soaring modern buildings in Bangalore. But I didn't expect to see "medical tourism."
Sleek medical centers
A study released last month by McKinsey & amp; Co. and the Confederation of Indian Industry found that over 150,000 foreigners visited India for treatment last year. That number is expected to rise by 15 percent a year, and sleek new medical centers are popping up, as entrepreneurs seek to replicate the success of the Indian software sector.
"Developed-world treatment at developing-world prices" is the theme.
Americans will face a choice: Grapple with thorny health insurance and rising medical costs in the United States, or buy a tour package to India combining surgery with a yoga holiday or a trip to the Taj Mahal -- for far, far less.
Take my rabies shots. In India, the shots cost the equivalent of about $9 each; my final two shots will occur in the United States, and my physician quotes me a cost of $180 each. Changing my plane ticket to stay longer in India would be more cost-effective.
"India is on the move," said a businessman from New Jersey, who didn't want to give his name, because he was in Bangalore setting up an offshoring facility. "We've got too much debt in the U.S., and the young Indians are educated and less expensive to hire."
The statistics bear this out. Nearly 70 percent of India's population is under 35. The country has the world's fastest-growing middle class. Literacy is on the rise. Eight out of 10 Indians would rather live in India than abroad, according to India Today magazine, and why not? Work is now coming to them, instead of the other way around.
Tour-company owner Parik Laxminarayan is a good example. The 28-year-old Bangalore native was educated at Ohio State University and Georgetown University's business school, and has worked in the United States, Europe and Singapore. But he returned to India to start his own business.
"There are more opportunities here, and everyone is an entrepreneur," he said. "We have to be, in order to get ahead."
Trade deficit
This is what used to be said about the United States. But as Congress and the Bush administration fight out a new budget -- which critics say could lead to nearly insurmountable debt -- the U.S. trade deficit remains stubbornly high, and our education system lags behind many other nations'.
"India won't overtake us," sniffed a woman from Atlanta, whom I'd met in Agra. She was showing me the handful of emerald and ruby rings she had bought near the shadow of the Taj Mahal, a side trip for her and her husband. He was in India to open a pharmaceutical office in Mumbai.
"Have you seen their birthrate?" she said of the Indians. "And all those poor people? India will never be like the United States."
Maybe not. But I called my broker to buy rupees, all the same. Two things I've learned in India: You cannot fight a monkey in Haridwar, and the competition from India is not going away.
X Michele Mitchell is the author of "A New Kind of Party Animal" (nonfiction) and "The Latest Bombshell" (fiction), and a former national correspondent for the PBS program "Now," with Bill Moyers, and a former CNN political analyst. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.