Medical Tourism in Developing Countries

Notes ● 21545. The number offered by CII-McKinsey (ibid.) is 85%, while another source putsit at 60% (Aaditya Mattoo and Randeep Rathindran, “How Health InsuranceInhibits Trade in Health Care,” Health Affairs 25, no. 2 (2006).46. To change the portability of public insurance in the United States would requirean amendment to the Social Security Act.47. Warner, “The Globalization of Medical Care,” p. 75.48. Mattoo and Rathindran, “How Health Insurance Inhibits Trade,” p. 358.49. Benavides, “Trade Policies,” p. 59.50. While patients have a Trajeta MERCOSUR that allows patients to receivehealth care services in other MERCOSUR countries, there is not yet an agreementon adding a travel packet to the insurance plan of public and privateinsurers. Francisco Leon, “The Case of the Chilean Health System, 1983–2000,”in WHO, Trade in Health Services, p. 181.51. Misty M. Johanson, “Health, Wellness Focus Within Resort Hotels,” FIUHospitality Review (Spring 2004): p. 27.52. Clare Sellars, “Cross Border Access to Healthcare Services Within the EuropeanUnion,” World Hospitals and Health Services 42, no. 1 (2006): pp. 23–25.53. Financial Times, July 2, 2003.54. Cited in Mattoo and Rathindran, “How Health Insurance Inhibits Trade,”notes 15, 16.55. New York Times, October 15, 2006.56. Gordon Smith, Statement of Chairman Gordon H. Smith, U.S. Senate SpecialCommittee on Aging, “The Globalization of Health Care: Can Medical TourismReduce Health Care Costs?” June 27, 2006, p. 1, http://aging.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?Fuseaction=Hearings.Detail&HearingID=182, accessed July 28,2006.57. Ibid.58. Leon, “The Case of the Chilean Health System,” p. 169.59. Simonetta Zarrilli, “The Case of Brazil,” p. 180.60. Most medical tourists travel for procedures that are not covered entirely by theirhealth insurances or for which there is a high deductible. If they are treatedoverseas, they are using out-of-network providers and thus tend to have higherdeductibles and co-payments. Those who have good insurance with good coverageare going to have fewer savings after they pay for travel. They will havewhat has been called “local-market bias.” Mattoo and Rathindran, “HowHealth Insurance Inhibits Trade in Health Care.”61. As a result of the union’s objections, the patient did not travel to India and theemployer agreed to provide similar care in the United States. (New York Times,October 11, 2006).62. New York Times, November 16, 2006.63. Ibid.64. UNCTAD Secretariat, “International Trade in Health Services: Difficulties andOpportunities for Developing Countries,” in UNCTAD-WHO JointPublication, International Trade in Health Services, p. 13.