Medical Tourism in Developing Countries

218 ● Notes102. It is a problem in Britain because of the large number of nonresidents thatuse the national health insurance. Regulations state that the NHS must chargepatients for care if they are “not ordinarily resident in the UK.” For ethicaland humanitarian reasons, the government maintains free emergency care forvisitors (incidental medical tourists) as well as free continuing treatment forsome infectious diseases (so as to reduce the public health risk). However, thequestion is what to do with other types of demand, such as asylum seekerswhose applications for stay have been rejected but are still in the country?Edwin Borman, “Health Tourism: Where Healthcare, Ethics and the StateCollide,” British Medical Journal 328 (January 10, 2004).103. Farah Stockman, “US Hospitals Lose Saudi Patients and Income,” The BostonGlobe, May 17, 2006, http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/diseases/articles/2006/05/17/us_hospitals_lose_saudi_patients_and_income?p1=email_to_a_friend, accessed on February 20, 2007.104. Gail Garfinkel Weiss, “Productivity Takes a Dip,” Medical Economics,November 18, 2005, p. 87.105. There is evidence of this already in 2006, albeit not as a result of medicaltourism. The New York Times (June 20, 2006) reported that military personnelwith poor vision are increasingly opting for Lasik eye surgery, available tothem without charge. As a result of their newly good eyesight, they can competeto become pilots, thus changing the relative demand for work in theNavy and the Air Force.Chapter 71. Henryk Kierzkowski, “Trade and Public Health in an Open Economy: aFramework for Analysis,” WHO, Trade in Health Services: Global, Regional andCountry Perspectives (Washington, D.C.: Pan American Health Organization,Program on Public Policy and Health, Division of Health and HumanDevelopment, 2002), p. 52.2. Ruth Levine, Millions Saved: Proven Successes in Global Health (Washington,D.C.: Center for Global Development, 2004).3. Jeffrey Sachs, The End of Poverty (New York: Penguin Press, 2005), pp. 260 – 61.4. Songphan Singkaew and Songyot Chaichana, “The Case of Thailand,” inUNCTAD-WHO Joint Publication, International Trade in Health Services:A Development Perspective (Geneva, UN, 1998), p. 239.5. Confederation of Indian Industries (CII)-McKinsey, Healthcare in India: TheRoad Ahead (New Delhi, CII, 2002).6. Pan American Health Organization (WHO), www.paho.org/english/DD/AIS/cp_152.htm#problemas, accessed March 27, 2006.7. Samuel Preston, “The Changing Relation between Mortality and Level ofEconomic Development,” Population Studies 29, no. 2 (1975).8. Tola Olu Pearce, “Health Inequalities in Africa,” in The Political Economy ofHealth in Africa, eds., Toyin Falola and Dennis Ityavyar (Athens: Ohio UniversityMonographs in International Studies, Africa Series 60, 1992), p. 203.