Medical tourism in developing countries

2008 ◽  
Vol 45 (07) ◽  
pp. 45-3887-45-3887
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Medical Tourism

Global flows

2019 ◽  
pp. 192-219
Author(s):  
Ronald Labonté ◽  
Arne Ruckert
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Health Systems ◽  
Medical Tourism ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Skilled Labour ◽  
Private Investments ◽  
Market Opportunities ◽  
Health Worker Migration ◽  
High Disease Burden

Health systems rely upon two groups of people: health workers and patients. In recent decades both groups have been on the move globally, with the creation of internationalized labour market opportunities (the hunt for skilled labour in the case of health workers) and private investments in high-end health care on lower-cost developing countries (one of the key incentives for patients seeking care outside of their own country, for uninsured or under-insured services). Both flows raise a number of health equity concerns. Health worker migration can pose undue hardships on low-resource, high-disease burden countries who lose their workers to richer nations, creating a ‘perverse subsidy’ of poor to rich. With medical tourism, private, fee-paying foreign patients in poorer countries could ‘crowd out’ access to care for domestic patients in those countries, while potentially returning with drug resistant infections or complications burdening their home country’s health systems.

Is Medical Tourism Really Unethical? An Alternate Perspective for Developing Countries

2021 ◽  
pp. 245513332110623
Author(s):  
Divya Chaudhry
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Medical Tourism ◽  
Healthcare Access ◽  
Public Healthcare ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Healthcare Facilities ◽  
Equity Issues ◽  
Opting Out ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
Academic Literature

This article makes a case for leveraging medical tourism (MT) from the perspective of improving healthcare access in developing countries. The expansion of MT at an unprecedented rate has given rise to a number of ethical concerns in both home and destination countries. Ethical debates in this field have transcended the realm of global public health and have emerged across various disciplines including development, social justice, legal, trade and policy studies. Much of the academic literature in these domains has categorically held MT responsible for commodification of healthcare, creating a duality in healthcare systems of developing countries and making healthcare inaccessible and unaffordable for the disadvantaged sections of the population. While all these claims normatively seem justified, this article asserts that despite the several ethical concerns that have been raised, MT may not necessarily exacerbate healthcare equity issues in developing countries. In fact, MT may benefit destination countries by creating a highly specialised private sector which may provide services not only to foreign patients but also to wealthier domestic patients. Voluntary opting-out of domestic patients from public healthcare will result in decongestion of public healthcare facilities, which in turn could be accessed to a greater extent by the underprivileged population at affordable cost. In addition to contributing to the limited academic literature on this particular aspect of MT, this article presents an alternate view to promote MT in developing countries from the perspective of addressing challenges related to healthcare access.

scholarly journals Dental Tourism Development in India: An Emopirical Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-83
Author(s):  
Binoy T A ◽  
Monisha A
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Medical Tourism ◽  
Dental Treatment ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Economic Downturn ◽  
Indian Medical

Medical Tourism in India has emerged as one of the fastest growing segments of the tourism industry despite the global economic downturn.  High cost of treatments in the developed counties, particularly the USA and UK, have been forcing patients from such regions to look for alternative and cost-effective destinations to get their treatments done. The Indian medical tourism industry is presently at a nascent stage, but has enormous potential for future growth and development.  As a significant component of the colossal medical tourism,   Dental Tourism is emerging in the Third World countries, especially in India.  Dental tourists are mainly generated from developed countries such as USA and European countries as theya re looking for developing countries to get their dental treatment coupled with participating in tourism activities.  The lower cost of treatment and availability are the most significant reasons for choosing developing countries as dental tourism destinations.  Dental tourism forms 10 percent of the total Indian medical tourism which is projected to grow at 30 percent to Rs 9,500 crore by 2015.  India produces over 18,000 dentists annually from 238 dental colleges.  The country has around 1,500 oral and maxillofacial surgeons.  A few studies were carried out on various problems faced by the dental tourism industry in India.  The dental  tourist’s perception towards Indian dental tourism industry and their satisfaction level after getting treatment are a few concerns.  This research paper is prepared based on primary and secondary data collected from various sources.  The primary data have been collected from dentists, staff and dental tourists from two famous internationally recognised dental hospitals located in Bangalore, Karnataka.

Medical Tourism in Developing Countries

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milica Z. Bookman ◽  
Karla R. Bookman
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Medical Tourism

Medical Nomads

2017 ◽  
pp. 60-71
Author(s):  
Hitoshi Noguchi
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Medical Treatment ◽  
Medical Care ◽  
Medical Practice ◽  
Medical Tourism ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
The Future ◽  
On Line

Medical tourism is currently a catch-all phrase to describe any form of travel across borders for the purpose of receiving medical treatment. Up to this point in time, there have basically been only two kinds; patients from developing countries seeking advanced medical care unavailable in their homeland and patients from developed countries seeking lower prices or faster attention for their medical care. Although these two groups have been growing exponentially in recent years and pose substantial challenges on their own, little attention has been paid to a third arm of the medical tourism industry which potentially may have greater ramifications for the future. There is an emerging class of on-line entrepreneurs who may take advantage of their choice of lifestyle to enhance the range of choices in their medical treatment, and this group should be recognized. This chapter discusses the demands and challenges this new arm of medical tourism may pose for public policy, medical financing and medical practice.

Mapping transnational commercial surrogacy arrangements in South and Southeast Asia

2021 ◽  
pp. 002581722098509
Author(s):  
Jutharat Attawet
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Medical Tourism ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Commercial Surrogacy ◽  
South And Southeast Asia

Transnational commercial surrogacy is a form of medical tourism undertaken by intended parents in an attempt to seek surrogates in other countries. Most intended parents are from developed countries and seek their surrogates from developing countries, predominantly from South and Southeast Asia. This arrangement led to the establishment of surrogacy businesses in South and Southeast Asia, in countries such as India and Thailand. Subsequently, the business was banned in these countries, which led to a trend of moving it to neighbouring countries where there were no regulations or restrictions. This paper maps the movement of the industry and calls for attention to re-consider or re-frame commercial surrogacy in an international framework.

Medical tourism and health worker migration in developing countries

2015 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 391-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamid Beladi ◽  
Chi-Chur Chao ◽  
Mong Shan Ee ◽  
Daniel Hollas
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Health Worker ◽  
Medical Tourism ◽  
Health Worker Migration

Medical Nomads

2015 ◽  
pp. 110-121
Author(s):  
Hitoshi Noguchi
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Medical Treatment ◽  
Medical Care ◽  
Medical Practice ◽  
Medical Tourism ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
The Future ◽  
On Line

Medical tourism is currently a catch-all phrase to describe any form of travel across borders for the purpose of receiving medical treatment. Up to this point in time, there have basically been only two kinds; patients from developing countries seeking advanced medical care unavailable in their homeland and patients from developed countries seeking lower prices or faster attention for their medical care. Although these two groups have been growing exponentially in recent years and pose substantial challenges on their own, little attention has been paid to a third arm of the medical tourism industry which potentially may have greater ramifications for the future. There is an emerging class of on-line entrepreneurs who may take advantage of their choice of lifestyle to enhance the range of choices in their medical treatment, and this group should be recognized. This chapter discusses the demands and challenges this new arm of medical tourism may pose for public policy, medical financing and medical practice.

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