1. Medical Tourism and Economic Development.
- Author
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Bookman, Milica
- Subjects
- *
MEDICAL care costs , *PATIENTS , *MEDICAL tourism ,DEVELOPING countries - Abstract
Due to the high cost of medical care at home, western patients are increasingly going to developing countries for medical care. The sale of high-tech medical care to foreigners is currently a reality in numerous developing countries and has come to be called medical tourism. It is an economic activity that entails trade in services and represents the splicing of two of the largest world industries: medicine and tourism. This paper focuses on the growth implications of medical tourism in ten countries that are actively catering to international patients (including India, Philippines, Thailand, South Africa, Costa Rica, Malaysia, Chile, Cuba, Argentina and Jordan). It starts off by assessing the size of the medical tourism phenomenon in these countries by compiling data on the numbers of foreign patients and the income they generate.There are two objective of this study. First, it aims to understand how revenue from international patients translates into output, jobs, income, etc. in the host countries. Second, this study strives to understand why some developing countries are more successful in promoting medical tourism than others. In other words, what are the advantages they possess that enable them to overcome domestic and international obstacles to trade in healthcare services.By way of conclusion, this paper will present the following reasons why Malaysia, for example, attracts foreign patients while Mauritania does not: competitive prices for high-tech medical services, abundant human capital, domestic research and development, developed physical infrastructure, developed legal and political institutions and a market economy. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2008