Dentacoin Issues Report Advancing Blockchain-Based Mobile Payments for Medical Tourism

File this one under “only obvious in retrospect,” but the folks out at Dentacoin sent an absolute head-slapper our way recently. Basically, they advanced the notion that, if more medical practices got involved in accepting a cryptocurrency like Dentacoin—but not necessarily Dentacoin itself—the practice of medical tourism would see a downright renaissance in response.

Dentacoin drew remarks from Dr. Prem Jagyasi for the basis of its notion, and the logic makes a certain sense. Medical tourism has been on the rise in recent years, to the point where it’s an industry worth around $100 billion already. This is before you factor in the 25 percent year-over-year growth rate that’s projected, and projected to run until 2025.

Some would respond that this is a function of Americans and some other nations subsidizing said care by paying massively inflated prices in the United States—a 2018 report from The Hill suggests that Americans pay more than double for Humira, a rheumatoid arthritis treatment, what the UK pays for it—but the point remains. Some Americans actually find it worthwhile to take a trip for their healthcare.

Americans, the study notes, routinely travel to several key places for treatment: Argentina, Costa Rica, Israel, India, South Korea and several others are on the list. Argentina was particularly noted in this study as one of its largest dental chains, Cool Dent, recently started accepting Dentacoin for treatment.

Cryptocurrencies and their blockchain roots make for an excellent way to transfer not only payment, but also records. There’s no need for messy currency conversions, because the currency is universal. While one dollar buys 37.40 Argentine pesos, one dollar buys 3,960.422 Dentacoin. Interestingly, 37.40 Argentine pesos buys 3,963.965 Dentacoin. That’s near-parity, and means that one Dentacoin has the same value in multiple places, including where people would go for medical tourism.

Sure, medical tourism isn’t for everybody. You have to be able to afford to go to Argentina to get that care. For those who can take the trip, though, it becomes possible to take advantage of surprisingly high-quality medical care in other countries. Using a cryptocurrency to pay for it would make the job a lot smoother, and might well encourage others to make the trip as one significant hurdle—ease of use—is removed in the process.