Medical Tourism in Developing Countries

Promoting Medical Tourism ● 165erode profits (since they are based on the price of treatments and procedures).The introduction of insurance portability across borders is likely to alleviatesome concerns about profits and revenues since private insurers would participatein the health expenses of their nationals traveling abroad for healthcare. At the same time, new concerns will arise, such as overconsumption ofservices (if costs are so cheap overseas and insurance pays, patients mightoveruse the system, especially if a vacation is included as a tie-in 98 ). Theprivate health insurance is a huge industry that includes profit-maximizingnational and multinational corporations. For this reason, insurance companiesare interested in medical tourism and are tantalized by news of the possibleconstruction of a MediCity in the Bahamas for American patients. 99The public sector is ostensibly more concerned about equality, ethics, andpublic health than profits. Still, the bottom line continues to be a source ofdiscomfort. While medical tourism is not on the radar screen in U.S. governmentcircles, other Western source states are openly discussing its ramifications.For example, German authorities have expressed concern about theso-called “threat” of health tourism after German patients attempted toreceive reimbursement from the public sector (the Krankenkassen) for medicalgoods and services purchased in other EU countries. 100 The EuropeanCourt of Justice that recently ruled that Luxemburg’s national health insurancehad to reimburse two policyholders for nonemergency medical costsincurred in other parts of Europe. 101 Meanwhile, medical tourism is alsounder discussion in member countries that have been receiving and treatingforeign patients at domestic expense. It has been a huge problem in Britain,leading authorities in the mid-2000s to view the problem of medical tourismfrom the destination end rather than the source end. 102 In the future, allmember countries will have to develop a common policy to deal with medicaltourism outside the confines of Europe.Bottom line: Medical tourism is too new to have elicited a response fromprivate insurance companies. However, they should not wait too long;rather, they should strive to position themselves at this early stage of expansion.It is likely that private and public insurances will respond differentlygiven their different concerns, but nevertheless the public sector should nottrail too far behind.HospitalsWith increased numbers of patients traveling abroad for medical care, thereis likely to be a decrease in overall demand for domestic hospital servicesand beds (assuming no increase in demand from local populations, such asin response to insuring the currently uninsured population). The resulting