Patients are turning to hospitals around the world, not just near their homes, to receive treatment.

Right now, look at the tag of your t-shirt.  Does it say that it was made in [some country other than the U.S.]? Now, imagine being able to say the same thing for your hip replacement or your new nose job.  Medical tourism, medical travel, health tourism, global healthcare—all are names for the ever growing popularity of traveling internationally for health care services.   I had heard of this phenomenon in the past, but it was not until I Google searched “medical tourism” that the world of global healthcare opened up to me.  The first result was medicaltourism.com, a free resource for any patient and industry provider who ever wanted to know the ins and outs of medical tourism.

The medical procedures listed span anywhere from tummy tucks to gynecology to liver transplantation. Furthermore, non-medical procedures such as psychiatry, convalescent care, and alternative treatments are also offered.  As impressive as their list of medical procedures was, I was more surprised by the number of destinations where the medical procedure could be performed.  Places such as Turkey, Hong Kong, and Barbados are just some of the destinations that patients can “travel to around the world for medical and dental care”.  Some of the more popular packages are total knee replacement in Costa Rica, inguinal hernia surgery in Mexico, and face lift plus top and bottom blepharoplasty (eyelid surgery) in Thailand.  Often, the package expense includes both the prices for surgery and several days in a hotel, sometimes with meals included.

Although the popularity of medical tourism is recent, the practice has been around since Greek pilgrims would travel from the Mediterranean region to the area of Epidauria in the Aegean Sea. It was said to be the “sanctuary of the healing god Asklepios” and had become the leading travel destination for medical and health tourism. What has led to this recent popularity of getting procedures such as dental work in places like Indonesia as opposed the US? Some scholars attribute it to the high cost of health care, long waiting periods for surgical procedures, affordability of international travel, and technological improvements and regulations for care in other countries.  Sites for medical tourism compare prices for specific medical procedures for a patient; in most cases the US prices for the medical procedure were significantly more expensive.  Heart bypass surgery in the U.S. can cost up to $144,000, while in Mexico and India it will cost only $21,100 and $10,000, respectively.  An estimated 750,000 Americans went abroad for health care in 2007, and the report estimated that a million and a half would seek health care outside the US in 2008. It is predicted that the growth in medical tourism will cost US health care providers billions of dollars in lost revenue since they cannot keep up with the prices the consumers are demanding.

Rachel, a customer on the medicaltourism website’s testimonial page, traveled to Bangkok, Thailand for breast augmentation and returned to the US to report that her experience was excellent.  Her surgeon had “trained in the US and spoke perfect English.” In the same way that Rachel has, many patients report positive experiences associated with medical tourism. However, there is a darkness looming in the midst of the six star hotels, cheap medical costs, and “medical safaris”.  Traveling long distances soon after surgery can increase the risk of complications. Most doctors suggest long periods of rest after having major surgery and there is a high possibility that the aggravation of travel will slow the process of recovery. Secondly, receiving medical care abroad may lead to medical tourists experiencing legal issues they are not familiar with. Litigation in many countries is limited and is the basis for the lower cost of care overseas. If problems were to arise, healthcare specialists claim that patients might not be “covered by adequate personal insurance or might be unable to seek compensation via malpractice lawsuits.” Thirdly, the illegal purchase of organs and tissues for transplantation in the years prior to 2007 has been alleged in countries such as India and China and raises many ethical issues.  Medical tourism is a business that has also become notorious for its illegal trade in the black market.  Finally, in places like the US, which has high standards of quality, medical tourism is viewed as risky.  The quality of post-operative care can differ significantly, depending on either the hospital or the country and prove to be different from US standards. These differences in global healthcare provider standards have been recognized by the World Health Organization, which in 2004 launched the World Alliance for Patient Safety. This organization assists hospitals and governments around the world in establishing patient safety policy and practices that become especially relevant when providing services for medical tourism.

So, what exactly do you have to do if you want to get your knee replaced in New Zealand?
1.    Contact your local medical tourism provider.
2.    Provide a medical report and any other additional info the provider may request from you.
3.    Certified doctors advise which medical treatment will be performed.
4.    Discuss the expenses, hospital selection, tourist destination, and duration of stay.
5.    Sign consent agreements.
6.    Get recommendation letters for medical visa from embassy.
7.    Travel to your chosen destination.
8.    A case executive who is assigned to you takes care of your accommodations and treatment.
9.    After medical treatment, you remain in tourist destination for however many days have been discussed.

If this sounds like the process you would like to go through to receive healthcare, then medical tourism might be for you.  Who knows?  As the standards for international medical care improve and health care costs continue to rise in the US…in the future, medical tourism might be for all of us.

Nicole Negbenebor is a junior Neuroscience major in Saybrook College.