Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news. Good morning, it's the
Speaker 1: big day. I'm heading out to Korea today.
Speaker 2: That's Julie Miller, a forty six year old stay at
Speaker 2: home mum from New Jersey. She's on her way to
Speaker 2: the airport to fly to South Korea.
Speaker 1: As I'm sitting here, I am noticing all my neck issues,
Speaker 1: so I'm very, very excited for these treatments.
Speaker 2: Those treatments, botox shots and skin tightening are the reason
Speaker 2: Julie's flying to Soul. It's a trip that will take
Speaker 2: her about a day, and the final bill for those
Speaker 2: treatments isn't cheap, about three thousand dollars, but it's almost
Speaker 2: half the cost of doing it back home, and Julie
Speaker 2: says they're worth the distance and every penny.
Speaker 1: The biggest draw was people were very satisfied with their results,
Speaker 1: and that combined with a better price than we have
Speaker 1: in the US, it's like a no brainer.
Speaker 2: Julie is among hundreds of thousands of tourists who travel
Speaker 2: from all over the world to South Korea every year
Speaker 2: for beauty treatments. Bloomberg senior reporter and Big Take Asia
Speaker 2: host One h has been reporting on the rise of
Speaker 2: medical tourism in the country.
Speaker 3: South Korea's medical tourism business hit a record high of
Speaker 3: six hundred thousand people in twenty twenty three, and they're
Speaker 3: on track to get even higher. A third of the
Speaker 3: tourists came in for cosmetic procedures in twenty twenty three,
Speaker 3: and another twenty percent came into Korea for plastic surgery
Speaker 3: right now, plasty facelifts, all that fun stuff.
Speaker 2: It's a growing industry for South Korea's economy, and the
Speaker 2: government wants to turn the country into a medical tourism
Speaker 2: herber in Asia. But as the beauty market thrives, the
Speaker 2: country's medical system faces other challenges.
Speaker 3: All South Korea has been long suffering from this doctor shortage,
Speaker 3: especially in emergency rooms and critical care, and at the
Speaker 3: beginning of twenty twenty four, we saw these resident doctors
Speaker 3: strike to protest low wages and these long working hours.
Speaker 3: This has now been going on for almost a year.
Speaker 3: At the same time, you've got this spectacular rise of
Speaker 3: the medical tourism industry, You've got a rise in doctors
Speaker 3: going into the more lucrative fields like plastic surgery, cosmetic centers, dermatology,
Speaker 3: and all of these things are booming against this backdrop
Speaker 3: where you've got people dying, people being refused from hospitals
Speaker 3: because there's a shortage of doctors.
Speaker 2: Welcome to The Big Take Asia from Bloomberg News. I'm
Speaker 2: Rebecca Chung Wilkins. Every week we take you inside some
Speaker 2: of the world's biggest and most powerful economies and the markets,
Speaker 2: tycoons and businesses that drive this ever shifting region. Today
Speaker 2: on the show, the rise of medical tourism in South
Speaker 2: Korea and how it's colliding with a shrinking supply of
Speaker 2: doctors and a struggling medical system.
Speaker 4: One.
Speaker 3: Hello, hey there, how's it going.
Speaker 4: Welcome.
Speaker 3: It's kind of funny treating seeds, isn't it.
Speaker 4: I know, so you usually sit on this end of
Speaker 4: the microphone, and finally I can put you in the
Speaker 4: hot seats. I'm going to try and spook you as much.
Speaker 3: As possible as Farry.
Speaker 2: Bloomberg's one hat is usually the host of The Big
Speaker 2: Take Asia, but this week she's in the hot seat
Speaker 2: to talk about her reporting on South Korea's medical tourism industry.
Speaker 3: Medical tourism is this broad catch all that the government uses,
Speaker 3: and it runs the gamut from people coming in for
Speaker 3: health checkups, to cancer treatment, even to laser surgery. But
Speaker 3: for most medical tourists, it's really about plastic surgery and skincare.
Speaker 2: Along with the rise of K pop, k beauty is
Speaker 2: enjoying a spectacular boom.
Speaker 3: Everything about South Korean culture is so cool and hip
Speaker 3: these days. I mean the fact that you know, Squid
Speaker 3: Games is on television, Black Pinks Rosy per song apt
Speaker 3: is like the global hit right now, playing on radios
Speaker 3: and streaming everywhere. And so of course this whole K
Speaker 3: pop culture is really feeding into this beauty esthetic. Looking young,
Speaker 3: looking good, having dewy glass skin that really is a standard,
Speaker 3: not just for Koreans, but I think for a lot
Speaker 3: of young people all around the world.
Speaker 2: Medical tourism isn't new. For years, people have been traveling
Speaker 2: to places like Thailand and Brazil for treatments, but South
Speaker 2: Korea is now seen as a rising destination for medical
Speaker 2: and cosmetic care, where people seek out some of the
Speaker 2: most affordable and advanced procedures to transform their bodies. It's
Speaker 2: a highly competitive industry and one the Korean government has
Speaker 2: been formally promoting since two thousand and nine.
Speaker 3: The Korean government really wants to establish Korea as a
Speaker 3: medical tourism hub. The lawmakers in twenty sixteen past this
Speaker 3: law to support and help grow the medical tourism industry.
Speaker 3: And it's got a whole system to basically license companies
Speaker 3: that help to bring in these foreign patients to the clinics.
Speaker 3: It gives subsidies to the companies and to the industry.
Speaker 3: There's this government unit under the Health to Ministry that holds,
Speaker 3: you know, medical tourism shows around the world, and they
Speaker 3: offer medical tourism visas.
Speaker 4: And you recently went to South Korea for one of
Speaker 4: these treatments. Maybe that's why you're looking particularly glowing in
Speaker 4: twenty thirty five five.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, as you say, while in Korea, do
Speaker 3: as the Koreans do. I mean, it's hard to be
Speaker 3: in Korea and not feel like, geez, there's something wrong
Speaker 3: with me. And I figured, since I'm writing about this,
Speaker 3: I figure I should just do it myself and experience
Speaker 3: for myself what that was like.
Speaker 2: And what did your doctor tell you in your consultation?
Speaker 3: Oh that was funny.
Speaker 5: Hi.
Speaker 3: My name is Juan yep So. I actually went to
Speaker 3: two consultations. The very first one was for the facial
Speaker 3: treatment that I got. I also went to go see
Speaker 3: a plastic surgeon and asked him what would you do
Speaker 3: to improve upon this? Here's here's what he said.
Speaker 5: And you notice it's a really cookie and your TV
Speaker 5: serve ved if Bob was here. Our foreheads are really flat,
Speaker 5: so I recommend the fatcraft to hear. Your chin is
Speaker 5: a really small and retracted, so we will recommend the
Speaker 5: chin implant war shin advancement.
Speaker 3: So essentially basically said, you shouldn't be walking out like
Speaker 3: you do every day. You really should be wearing a mask.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: One eventually got a micro needling an ultrasound therapy to
Speaker 2: help lift and tighten her skin, and she says she
Speaker 2: did feel like she was glowing afterwards and would do
Speaker 2: it again. She got her treatments in Gangna. Yes, that's
Speaker 2: it's the same Gangnam that's featured in the song Gangnam Style.
Speaker 3: Gangnam is a district in Soul and the name literally
Speaker 3: translates to south of the Han River, and it's known
Speaker 3: as South Korea's Beverly Hills actually because a lot of
Speaker 3: the wealthy residents and you've got these celebrities who live
Speaker 3: there as well, So both a residential area but also
Speaker 3: a very vibrant business district. I went on a tour
Speaker 3: and entered about five of these high rises, and every
Speaker 3: single one was filled with literally dozens and dozens and
Speaker 3: dozens of plastic surgery, cosmetic centers, skin care clinics.
Speaker 2: Based on data from the International Society of Esthetic Plastic Surgery,
Speaker 2: the number of Korean cosmetic surgeons in private practice has
Speaker 2: nearly doubled in the past decade to more than twenty
Speaker 2: seven hundred, the highest concentration per capita globally. But South
Speaker 2: Korea also has one of the lowest ratios of doctors
Speaker 2: to population in the developed world, meaning there's not enough
Speaker 2: doctors to care for people in need of medical attention.
Speaker 3: The doctors, they've been on strike for almost a year,
Speaker 3: some of them have resigned. There's a local media report
Speaker 3: that said the number of er doctors fell more than
Speaker 3: forty percent nationwide last year.
Speaker 2: After the break. Where South Korea's medical tourism boom and
Speaker 2: its doctor shortage collides. South Korea has seen a boom
Speaker 2: in medical tourism in recent years, with hundreds of thousands
Speaker 2: of people coming from around the world to get popular
Speaker 2: cosmetic treatments, but tensions are escalating alongside that growth. For years,
Speaker 2: South Korea has been plagued by a shortage of doctors,
Speaker 2: especially in critical fields, and young doctors in particular have
Speaker 2: been complaining about their low wages and harsh working conditions.
Speaker 2: Blueberg to oneh met one of these doctors.
Speaker 3: She's obgyn, an obstetrician gynecologist in her thirties, and she
Speaker 3: basically said, listen, life as a resident is awful, right.
Speaker 3: You don't make a lot of money to begin with,
Speaker 3: but you're working these crazy work weeks. She was saying
Speaker 3: that she had worked eighty hour weeks.
Speaker 2: And in February last year, to address the shortfall of
Speaker 2: medical staff, the government proposed increasing the quota for medical students.
Speaker 3: They proposed to increase medical school admissions by two thirds
Speaker 3: to about five thousand a year. You think that would
Speaker 3: be a good thing, right, getting more doctors into the pipeline,
Speaker 3: But in fact, the doctors were all up in arms
Speaker 3: about it.
Speaker 2: And why are they upset about the government increasing admissions
Speaker 2: for medical students.
Speaker 3: The doctors are saying that, hey, just adding more doctors
Speaker 3: into the mix isn't going to solve the structural problems
Speaker 3: that's really underpinning the shortage and it comes down to
Speaker 3: what they say, or at least two critical issue shoes. One.
Speaker 3: Korea's got this great national health insurance system. It serves
Speaker 3: fifty two million citizens. It's one of the best healthcare systems.
Speaker 3: But Koreans love to see their doctors, and they're seeing
Speaker 3: their doctors way more than in other developed countries. So
Speaker 3: these doctors are super super busy.
Speaker 2: That's in part because healthcare is really accessible and affordable
Speaker 2: in South Korea. Koreans can visit any medical institution, public
Speaker 2: or private, and only need to pay a fraction of
Speaker 2: the cost. The government then reimburses the hospitals and clinics
Speaker 2: for the treatment. But hospitals say the reimbursement from the
Speaker 2: government is too low.
Speaker 3: So low in fact, that a lot of these hospitals
Speaker 3: are barely financially stable and they're relying on this very
Speaker 3: heavy and high turnover to stay in business. And of
Speaker 3: course that puts a lot of burden back on the doctors,
Speaker 3: especially these poor young residents who are working crazy eighty
Speaker 3: work week hours.
Speaker 2: In February twenty two, twenty four, nearly thirteen thousand doctors,
Speaker 2: mostly residents and trainees, went on strike around the country.
Speaker 2: Some of them have resigned altogether. The strike has been
Speaker 2: going on for almost a year. The guynecologist she also
Speaker 2: joined the walkout with her colleagues and has since quit
Speaker 2: her job at the hospital. She's now working as a
Speaker 2: dermatologist at a skincare clinic and soul. She said she's
Speaker 2: happy with that choice now that she can spend more
Speaker 2: time with her baby.
Speaker 3: There are just these fundamental structural problems that the government
Speaker 3: still isn't addressing, and so you do have doctors leaving
Speaker 3: critical medical specialties and entering fields that aren't dependent on
Speaker 3: the healthcare reimbursement system, like dermatology, like plastic surgery.
Speaker 2: For things like cosmetic procedures or plastic surgery, such treatments
Speaker 2: aren't covered by national insurance, so doctors working in these
Speaker 2: specialties are able to charge and earn a lot more.
Speaker 3: The doctors say, as long as you have this current
Speaker 3: national health insurance system in place with super low reimbursements,
Speaker 3: you're always going to have a shortage of doctors because
Speaker 3: nobody's going to want to stay in these critical care
Speaker 3: specialties that don't pay a whole lot when they can see, oh,
Speaker 3: they're fellow dermatologists making twice as much as they are.
Speaker 2: Even more, the impasse has led to a disruption of
Speaker 2: essential medical services at hospitals. Major hospitals have had to
Speaker 2: cut back on surgeries and emergency room operation hours. In
Speaker 2: some cases, the shortage has had deadly consequences. A report
Speaker 2: from Dunguok University said some thirty seven hundred patients have
Speaker 2: died since twenty seventeen because local hospitals didn't have enough
Speaker 2: doctors to treat patients and refused to provide care. After
Speaker 2: the walkout, the Health Ministry began deploying military doctors to
Speaker 2: hospital emergency rooms to deal with the ongoing staff shortage
Speaker 2: and in the long run, the government told Bloomberg, GET
Speaker 2: pledged to spend about twenty billion dollars to complete medical
Speaker 2: reform and is continuing to monitor the situation. There's another
Speaker 2: consequence to all of this. It's impossible to ignore, and
Speaker 2: you can see it on the faces of people you
Speaker 2: pass on the street in Korea and beyond.
Speaker 3: It's hard because in Korea when you walk around, everybody
Speaker 3: is put together right, And can you imagine if you
Speaker 3: don't subscribe to that kind of esthetic, If that's not
Speaker 3: you right, I mean, how out of place you feel
Speaker 3: and when there are places that are offering six dollars
Speaker 3: botox shots, how can you refuse? And so I think
Speaker 3: there is such an immense pressure for people to stay young,
Speaker 3: to look young, to stay good, and I think it's
Speaker 3: really hard for people who perhaps don't subscribe to that
Speaker 3: kind of aesthetic and value.
Speaker 2: One checked in with Julie, the women from New Jersey
Speaker 2: that we heard earlier a month and a half after
Speaker 2: her procedures.
Speaker 3: So how are you doing? You said, a lot of
Speaker 3: people were noticing made some nice comments about your face
Speaker 3: and skins.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah they did. They said that I'm aging backwards.
Speaker 2: That's great.
Speaker 3: Well, how do you feel about it?
Speaker 1: I don't know that I noticed much until a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks. And then a couple of weeks later, at
Speaker 1: some point I looked in the mirror and I was like, Oh,
Speaker 1: my skin is looking really good.
Speaker 3: Are you thinking about making another trip anytime soon?
Speaker 1: I would actually do it, like in a year.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Are you thinking next time you'll come back with
Speaker 3: a friend, or you'll come back by yourself, or what
Speaker 3: are you thinking?
Speaker 1: My sister in law seems really interested, So maybe.
Speaker 2: This is the big take. Asia from Bloomberg News I'm
Speaker 2: Rebecca Cheung Wilkins. This episode was produced by Young Young,
Speaker 2: Naomi Ung, and Jessica Beck. It was mixed by Alex Sagura,
Speaker 2: sound designed by Jessica, and fact check by Naomi. It
Speaker 2: was edited by Aaron Edwards and David Rocks. There was
Speaker 2: additional reporting Guy Sella. Naomi Shavin is our senior producer,
Speaker 2: Elizabeth Ponso is our senior editor, Nicole Beemsterbor is our
Speaker 2: executive producer, and Stage Bauman is Bloomberg's head of podcasts.
Speaker 2: Please follow and review The Big Take Asia wherever you
Speaker 2: listen to podcasts. It really helps new listeners find the show.
Speaker 4: See you next time.