Medical Tourism in Developing Countries

Introduction to Medical Tourism ● 15per capita at Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), justifying its inclusion intothis study. Moreover, with respect to growth rates, Argentina led the groupin 2003–4 (8 percent) while Cuba and Costa Rica lagged behind the others(0.9 percent and 2.7 percent, respectively).The structural transformation of the economy is useful in understandingthe level of development in the countries under study. To that end, theproportion of the GDP derived from agriculture, industry, and services isobserved. From table 1.1, it is clear that India is the least developed countryin the study (with 22 percent of GDP derived from agriculture and26 percent from industry). The next countries with respect to the size of theagricultural sector are Argentina, Malaysia, and Thailand (all 10 percent).However, in those countries the size of the industrial sector is larger thanin India (32 percent, 48 percent, and 44 percent, respectively).The UN ranks 177 countries according to their Human DevelopmentIndex (HDI), a composite index that measures a country’s achievement inoverall human development as measured by a combination of health (lifeexpectancy), knowledge (literacy and school enrollment), and living standards(GDP per capita at PPP). All the countries under study are classifiedas either High or Medium according to the HDI. Even India, which isranked in the low-income category by the World Bank, is not ranked inthe Low category of the HDI.The above economic indicators show some of the ways in which thedestination countries under study are different from most developing countriesof Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Many have achieved phenomenalrates of economic growth and fundamental transformations of their economies.Such growth does not happen in a vacuum, in the absence of governmentefforts. The countries under study have, to differing extents, hadextensive economic reforms emanating from the top. Liberalization playeda crucial role in transforming sluggish economies into dynamic powerhouses,in producing phenomenal rates of economic growth, and in layingthe groundwork for medical tourism. Asian countries such as India andMalaysia are technologically ahead of the United States with respect to someconsumer technologies (such as cell phones and televisions). Demand forconsumer technology in South Africa and Chile has spurred research andproduction and boosted the local economy. The Philippine economy isundergoing fundamental changes aimed at putting it on a new growth trajectory.India and China are becoming the world’s emerging powerhouses.All these countries, to varying degrees, have state-of-the-art technology, atleast in the medical sector. Indeed, Thailand and Costa Rica are operatingon the technological frontier, right alongside the United States. Moreover,the structural transformation of the economy indicates a change in what is