Medical Tourism in Developing Countries

Promoting Medical Tourism ● 167decrease the supply of trained personnel in the United States. Moreover,foreign-born doctors often do residencies in small towns and then stay inthose communities, filling a void that American-born physicians are reluctantto fill. They might not do that if they have good career options athome. Similarly, FMG (foreign medical graduates) are residents that canwork in the United States without a green card and help fill the gap betweendemand for residents and supply. If they choose to stay at home, theAmerican medical labor market will be affected.An application of the Law of Supply to the above outcome wouldsuggest that wages of remaining medical staff would rise. That might notoccur because there is a simultaneous downward pressure on wages comingfrom the overall decrease in demand for physicians’ services because patientsare going abroad. Further study is needed to assess the net change in wages.Assuming for a moment that it is negative, then medicine would becomea less remunerative option for potential doctors. A less remunerative careerpath for American medical and nursing students means that more of thebest and brightest will shun health-care careers.What about the demand for physicians and nurses? Will there be enoughwork for them if patients seek health care outside the country? This toowill require immediate further study as already many specialties in theUnited States report having fewer patients and working fewer hours in 2005than they did in 2000. 104Manpower changes will spread beyond the medical field and affectemployment choices at the macro level. Through access to cheap medicalprocedures, individuals can strive for jobs previously closed to them (suchas nearsighted people correcting their vision and becoming pilots). 105Bottom line: Source-country authorities must carefully review themanpower implications of medical tourism. Inappropriate responses havethe potential to damage the human foundations of the Western healthcaresystems.ConclusionsFast forward to 2027. The medical industry in Western countries has undergonea fundamental transformation both in size and content. It has shrunkas a proportion of the GDP largely due to shriveling demand for its services.Over half of Western residents travel to developing countries for routinediagnostic tests and invasive procedures using transportation modes where, inthe interest of time, initial testing and pre-op takes place en route (the 10 A.M.flight from London to Delhi specializes in heart ailments, the 11 A.M. flightin diabetes). Due to advances in stem-cell research, other countries have