Medical Tourism in Developing Countries

Introduction to Medical Tourism ● 13have their proceeds been channeled into the expansion of any industry, letalone medical tourism. A handful of OPEC member countries and SouthAfrica are exceptions.According to Wolvaardt, only a limited number of developing countriesare significant competitors in health-care provision on a global scale. Henotes that “most developing countries still have to grasp the opportunitiesthat globalization offers to their health sectors.” 59 Most developing countrieshave not grasped those opportunities because they cannot. They cannotcompete in the international health-care markets. Medical tourism is not auniversally feasible export service. It cannot be viewed as a developmentoption for all LDCs, and so cannot be viewed as the solution to third worldhealth-care problems. Medical tourism, in contrast to general tourism, hashigh barriers to entry and a long list of requirements for its emergence,success, and sustenance (discussed in chapter 5). It includes human, financial,and physical capital. It also includes a supportive government policyas well as public administration and legal institutions that function honestlyand efficiently. There must be macroeconomic stability, a competitive openeconomy, and supporting economic institutions. There should also be lowcost of production and tourist appeal. While no single one of these requirementsis necessary or sufficient for medical tourism to take off, this listunderscores the fact that the development of medical tourism necessitatesconditions not required by other industries, even the growing ones such astourism in Antigua and oil in Chad.Medical tourism is studied in the following countries: Argentina, Chile,Costa Rica, Cuba, India, Jordan, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Africa,and Thailand. Some of these countries have been called emerging markets,and one is a member of the high-growth Brazil, Russia, India, and China(BRIC) group. 60 The selection of these countries and the omission of othersby no means implies that medical tourism does not exist elsewhere. To thecontrary, it exists in Singapore, Greece, Romania, and the former SovietBaltic states. However, these countries cannot be classified as “less developed.”Singapore, which most recently belonged to that category, now hasa per capita income that ranks it among the highest in the globe. Its medicaltourism industry, while long standing, has priced itself out of the massmarket as the rates of its services are comparable to those in Western states.Greece has combined its hugely successful tourist industry with medicalcare. Given its membership in the European Union (EU), it serves as acheap alternative for West Europeans. Latvia and Lithuania are also discoveringthe benefits of medical tourism and are well poised to offer it, giventheir communist legacy of human capital, developed infrastructure, anddecent overall health care. However, none of these countries is included in