The growth of medical tourism David Morgan, Health Division, OECD Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs
The number of people travelling abroad to seek medical treatment appears to have been growing in recent years. This could be part of a growing global trend. Thailand is popular with tourists for its exotic beaches and breathtaking temples. Now this “Asian tiger” is luring another kind of tourist: patients. The Thai Investment Board reports that Thailand treated over one million foreign patients in 2006. More than just mishappen holidaymakers, these patients were part of an expanding global trade in medical tourism which the board valued at US$40 billion worldwide and with global growth potential of some 20% per year. Some estimates go higher still. A 2008 report by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions estimated that the value of the world medical tourism market in 2008 was around $60 billion, and they expected double
12
digit growth rates in the years ahead. And while a follow up report in 2009 suggested that the recession would slow this growth–a trend which recent reports from Thailand appear to echo–it still forecast that the number of US outbound medical tourists would reach 1.6 million by 2012. The health sector has not been slow to respond to this phenomenon. An increasing number of countries or individual hospitals and clinics have actively marketed themselves as medical travel destinations, hoping to attract patients from neighbouring countries and further afield, through the promise of high quality, technologically advanced and competitively priced health services. In fact, travelling abroad for healthcare is nothing new. Since early times people have travelled far and wide in search of cures and healing. The 19th century was the heyday of spa towns and health resorts throughout
Europe. And in more recent times, wealthy patients from around the globe have traditionally sought the latest technology and highest quality service in exclusive private clinics, travelling wherever they felt necessary. Nowadays, medical tourism is the most visible part of a generalised growth in the globalisation of health–which essentially comes down to international trade in health services. Most people prefer to receive healthcare close to home. But under certain circumstances it can make more sense for a patient to receive healthcare abroad. In some cases the nearest health facility may in fact be across a border. In others, certain specialists or state of the art treatments are simply not available at home, or subject to a long waiting list. And of course, cost plays an important role, and many health tourists merely seek equivalent treatment in countries that are able to provide it