Medical Tourism in Developing Countries

Offshore Doctors ● 51accommodation, food and beverage, etc.), the savings are still real. Lowprices of medical services act as a lure, pulling the potential internationalpatient to pursue medical care outside his country.The force created by the exertion of such a pull is often complementedand amplified by the force of a push that catapults the patient from home.The push to pursue medical care outside of one’s borders has multiplecomponents.The most important component of this push is the high cost of medicalcare in source countries. Clearly, potential medical tourists are concerned notonly with absolute prices, but also with relative prices, the latter referring toprices of care in a developing country compared to the price of that serviceat home and/or in other LDCs. The high cost at home is clear both fromthe public sector viewpoint as well as that of the individual. In the UK, thenational health insurance is strained, buckling under insufficient tax funding,increasing health-care providers’ remunerations, and increasing demand forservices. It is no different in the United States. According to the Centers forMedicare and Medicaid Services, the American health-care budget will morethan double from $1.3 trillion in 2000 to $2.8 trillion by 2011, 41 and stillall medical needs will not be met. Individuals are also suffocated by risinghealth-care costs. In 2001, over one million Americans said exorbitant medicalcosts were the reason for their bankruptcy. 42 Even those who do not filefor bankruptcy find that medical costs are the fastest growing component ofconsumers’ basket of commodities. As a result, Americans are willing to takemedical risks by purchasing services from unaccredited providers, just in orderto save money (for example, Miami has become a center for illicit treatmentand unlicensed practitioners of plastic surgery as doctors from other countriescome to perform procedures 43 ). Under those conditions, people are likely tobe lured to destination LDCs by the low prices of expensive procedures.Medical insurance (discussed in chapter 6) is also part of the push as itis crucial in the determination of out-of-pocket expenses for medical tourists.Consumers are concerned with coverage, deductibles, and co-payments;and the deterioration in these contributes to the push to seek health careabroad. In a study by Cogan, Hubbard, and Kessler, a typical worker in2004 paid $750 more per year for insurance than three years ago. 44Moreover, each percentage point rise in health insurance costs increases thenumber of uninsured by 300,000 people. In a study by Miringoff andMiringoff, health-care coverage is cited as one of the social indicators in theUnited States that has worsened during 1970–1996. 45 They show thatthe proportion of the U.S. population without health insurance hasincreased over time, that enrollment in employer-financed health insuranceprograms has declined, and that the benefits of coverage have also declined.