When we think of "health care tourism," we typically think of wealthy foreigners who come to the United States to receive top-notch medical care.
That perception is not inaccurate, but an equally significant component of health care tourism involves residents of wealthy countries who travel to less developed ones to receive medical care at lower prices.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, 750,000 U.S. residents travel outside of the country each year to obtain medical care.
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Forbes contributor Russ Alan Prince reports that health care tourism generated between $60 billion and $75 billion in 2015 and suggests that figure could double in the next five years.
Dr. Daniel Carlin, who heads WorldClinic, a global telemedicine practice that specializes in longevity planning for seniors, told Prince that those with means will often seek international alternatives to the care that their third-party payer in the U.S. designates for them.
"The best health care solution to a particular problem is often not found in your local medical center or health system and I suspect that challenge will probably get worse before it gets better," he said. "Informed people with serious medical problems look globally for treatments that are superior to what they can get at home under Medicare and they are willing to pay for it privately."
Prince suggests that U.S. health care providers perceive a major opportunity to expand their business through medical tourism in the next few years. He argues that to successfully attract uber-wealthy foreigners to their practices, they will have to have "advocates" who will market their services abroad.
It is unclear to what extent a boom in health care services for wealthy foreigners will affect the overall U.S. health care system, but public health advocates will likely be concerned that providers that see the profit potential from such business will shift away from offering care to traditional customers covered by Medicare, Medicaid, or private insurance.
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