Medical Tourism in Developing Countries

Introduction to Medical Tourism ● 7explain the benefits for those hosting countries. In other words, what’s init for the destination countries that offer up their health-care facilities toforeigners? The answer: economic growth. Medical tourism is first andforemost related to economic growth. Not only does it bring in foreigncurrency but it also has linkages throughout both the health and the tourismindustries. By way of the multiplier, medical tourism spills into secondaryand tertiary sectors, producing cyclical waves of expansion.However, in developing countries, medical tourism, characterized byhigh-tech equipment and state-of-the-art methods, coexists side by sidewith malaria, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), dengue fever,and river blindness. More often than not, in developing countries wheremedical tourism flourishes, basic health care for rural populations and theurban poor is rudimentary. A dual medical system has emerged in whichspecialization in cardiology, ophthalmology, and plastic surgery serves theforeign and wealthy domestic patients while the local populations lackbasics such as sanitation, clean water, and regular deworming. In otherwords, sophisticated techniques for bypass surgery coexist with widespreadshortages of aspirin. How can this dichotomy sustain itself? Won’t the lackof basic health care and the resulting low life expectancy, low productivity,and low human capital formation cancel out the economic benefits of medicaltourism?Poor health is among the biggest problems in developing countries,while medical tourism could be one of the solutions. Poor health is detrimentalto economic growth, while medical tourism contributes to economicgrowth. Thus, health care is at once both the problem and the solution. Itis through the redistributive functions of macroeconomic policy that medicaltourism can contribute to the solution of health problems in developingcountries. Indeed, medical tourism can be taxed for the benefit of primaryhealth care that reaches the poor and the needy. Public policy can redirectincome from hospitals catering to foreign patients to facilities catering tothe local population. Thus, it is argued in this book that medical tourismcan lead to improved public health. In other words, medical tourism forpaying foreign patients can exist side by side with improvements in basichealth care. It is not an either/or proposition, but rather, both are possibleand, in fact, may even reinforce each other.About This BookIt has been said that medical tourism is so new it can’t even be measured. 46Yet, because of its phenomenal potential, it deserves the attention of scholars,policy makers, investors, and the media; because of its rapid expansion,