Reconciling Medical Tourism with Local Healthcare

Criticism of Medical Tourism

Critics of medical tourism have long pointed out the disparities in the health care provided to foreigners who pay in dollars and the local populations of popular medical tourism destinations like India.  While locals can't afford the cost of an emergency life-saving procedure at one of the country's hospitals, these same facilities lay out the red carpet for Westerners who can pay the lower costs of say, a nose job surgery.  To an extent, the criticism is justified.  The cost of a nose job surgery or any other cosmetic surgery procedure at an Apollo or Bumrungrad is what most people in these countries would be forced to pay for an emergency cardiac surgery at a smaller, less reputed facility.

Most medical tourism destinations have a good record for providing life-saving treatments and plastic surgery procedures to foreigners, but have moderate to poor records when it comes to providing affordable heath care to their own citizens.  In most parts of Asia, it’s the middle class and the elite who can afford high quality private health care.  The medical tourism facilities in plastic surgery meccas like Thailand's Bumrungrad or India's Apollo Hospitals tend to be priced higher than the average middle class Asian can afford. 

A Change of Image for Medical Tourism

Now, governments in these countries are making efforts to balance out the rich-poor health care divide by putting pressure on these facilities to treat more patients who may not be able to pay the costs of their treatment.  Apollo Hospitals, which has been rapped on the knuckles by the Indian government more than once for its failure to provide health care for poor patients, now has programs to provide medical assistance for under-privileged patients.  The Indian Health Secretary has even suggested tying treatment for poor patients with increased revenues for the hospital.  There have also been proposals to tax these medical tourism facilities and use the funds generated to increase public health initiatives.  In the Philippines, the government is putting pressure on private hospitals to take in more needy patients.

It remains to be seen whether these initiatives will actually force medical tourism hospitals to reserve beds for poorer locals.  What medical tourism does do, however, is it increases demand for doctors, medical schools, and health care professionals in the long-run.  While this is not entirely relevant for those who need treatment now, it does bode well for the poor of tomorrow who could potentially benefit from the increased competition that high profits almost always attract.