Tsoc 165 - Introduction to Sociology

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- Pp. 331-316. What are some of the ways that medical tourism has been used as a strategy to promote economic development in destination countries?

In India, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia, medical tourism trade is considered as an important resource for economic and social development. Singapore government uses its public–private partnership Singapore Medicine to promote international travel to the country to receive medical treatments. International medical travel brings foreign currency into the country, promotes job creation, reveals the cultural attractions of Singapore and thereby encourages return visits, and offers significant economic benefits without the pollution generated by manufacturing and other resource dependent industries.

- Pp. 317-320. What are some of the risks associated with medical tourism?

There are not many large corporations involve in medical tourism because they are concerned about liability issues; they do not want to serve as a legal lightning rod when an employee uses employer-sponsored health insurance, accepts a financial incentive to receive out-of-country medical care and is harmed while receiving medical care at a facility in Bangkok or Mumbai. Brokerages are not responsible for anything happens to the clients. The clients have to decide where to go to, the treatments they want, and who their physician is. The greatest risk facing international medical travelers is that low-cost health care is sometimes inferior medical care.

- What do you see as the ethical issues for and against medical tourism?

While wealthy and rich foreigner patients travel to the US to receive higher quality treatment or procedures and technology that is unavailable at their home countries, patients from the US are increasingly traveling to India, China, Singapore for cheaper or experimental treatment.