Medical tourism

Medical tourism

Abstract

In order to avail the benefits and to seek the advanced technology and expertise that are available in medical foundations, many citizens of different countries have travelled to the developed and urban countries of Europe and United States. In the current past years, there is a new trend which is known as medical tourism has come forward where citizens of urban countries prefers to avoid care offered or supplied in their communities, and they prefer to travel to less developed regions of the world in order to grasp a large variety of medical and care services (Horowitz et.al., 2007). Medical tourism in becoming more and more popular and according to research it is estimated that around 750,000 Americans would look for offshore medical services in the year 2007. This trend is motivated by the forces made by marketplaces. Medical tourism portrays important challenges, concerns and also the potential opportunities (Horowitz et.al., 2007). This phenomenon of medical tourism will have rising impact on the landscape of the healthcare system in developing and industrialized countries all around the world (Horowitz et.al., 2007). Internet advertisements played a vital role in the promotion of medical tourism. In medical tourism, most of the Asians travel to overseas for the purpose of medical operations like cosmetic surgery and many other surgeries. The increment in medical tourism highlights the growing reliance on technology, the privatization of healthcare, imbalanced access to healthcare resources and the quicken globalization of tourism and healthcare both (Anonymous, 2006).

Abstractii

Thesis statement1

Introduction1

Ensuring favorable quality of medical treatment2

Medical tourism popularity3

Destinations for medical tourism4

Worldwide health care market5

Medical tourism rise in Asia5

Safety and quality in medical tourism6

Financial burdens and health shocks6

Conclusion7

References9

Thesis statement

Worldwide competition is coming forward in the industry of healthcare. Patients who are wealthy are traveling from developing countries to the developed countries in order to access good quality of healthcare systems.

Introduction

As affluent patients are traveling to developed countries in order to access good quality of healthcare services similarly less affluent patients who are living in the developed countries are traveling to areas that are underdeveloped. These people are looking for the excellent quality of medical care at affordable and reasonable prices (Herrick, 2007). According to research, it is estimated that around 500,000 Americans who travelled overseas for the medical treatment in the year 2005. Majority of these people travelled to Mexico and many other Latin American states. Around 250,000 Americans who sought medical services in Singapore, around 500,000 travelled to India and almost 1 million travelled to Thailand (Herrick, 2007). The major reason behind the travelling of patients from developed countries in order to access healthcare is the cost savings.

A hospital named as Apollo Hospital, located in India charges only $4000 for cardiac surgery whereas in the United States the cardiac surgery cost is about $30,000

Charges for the hip replacement surgery in Europe and United States are twice than the charges for the same surgery in Singapore, Thailand or Argentina

Knee replacement surgery charges in United States are $30,000 whereas charges of the same surgery ...