There is a well researched article on The Economist’s website that details the current and potential future effects of globalisation on the healthcare system in the USA. Unsurprisingly the comments associated with the article vary from being very supportive to being largely dismissive, but I like the overall thrust of the piece, which states “… health care abroad is not a substitute for difficult reforms at home. But medical travel could serve as a catalyst for those reforms.”.
As the general perception of healthcare abroad matures more towards acceptability and away from scepticisim, more and more people will be likely to give it a chance. Rather than seeing this increase in the numbers of medical tourists as a problem, doctors, dentists and hospitals in the US, the UK, and other source countries should see it as an opportunity to listen and learn to the concerns of their local patients and to address them as best they can.
[Source: The Economist]
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