Costa Rica Developers
Eye Health Care Centres
by Kevin Brass
The Costa Rican government is promoting a
plan to help developers build projects
centered on health care facilities for
foreign retirees.
New developments would offer clusters of
services, including nursing and research
facilities, catering to senior citizens
looking for an inexpensive alternative to
medical care in their own countries
In the wake the global economic slowdown,
health care centers are an opportunity for
developers to “change strategy,” Minister
for Competitiveness and Regulatory
Improvement George Woodbridge told La Prensa.
Retirement communities generate “two to
three times” the revenue of traditional
tourism and real estate projects, Woodbridge
said. A population of 10,000 retirees could
produce 40,000 jobs and $340 million in
foreign exchange, the government estimates.
Last year, medical tourism attracted 30,000
visitors to Costa Rica, according to
government data. That number is expected to
increase as health care costs continue to
rise. The U.S. is expected to generate 1.3
million medical tourists in 2011, according
to a report by the Deloitte Center for
Health Solutions, which ranks Costa Rica in
the top 10 destinations for medical tourism.
Until recently, most of the traffic in the
past has been young people looking for
cosmetic surgery and dental work, not
seniors, Deloitte says.
“With health care at the center of attention
in the U.S. this concept could certainly
gain ground if implemented properly,” Panama
developer Sam Taliaferro notes in his Panama
Investor Blog. “If Obamacare gets legs one
area that you can be sure will be left out
in the cold is alternative health care
practitioners. I bet they will head south
with technology and skills.”
(For the record, the World Health
Organization ranks Costa Rica’s health care
system at 36th in the world, one spot ahead
of the United States.) |
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