SPA and MEDICAL: Medical Tourism and the Side Effects

Global competition is emerging in the health care industry. Wealthy patients from developing countries have long traveled to developed countries for high quality medical care. Now, growing numbers of patients from developed countries are traveling for medical reasons to regions once characterized as "third world." Many of these "medical tourists" are not wealthy, but are seeking high quality medical care at affordable prices. Prices for treatment are lower in foreign hospitals for a number of re...

Spurred by the fertility success stories she read about on IVF Connections' Web site, Jennifer Leeds made plans to visit the Instituto Valenciano de Infertilidad (I.V.I.), in Valencia, Spain. Leeds, a 44-year-old real estate appraiser from Crofton, Maryland, had already seen a number of fertility specialists; she knew she'd need to have in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments if she wanted to have a baby. But she also knew she and her husband weren't up for spending $28,000, the price a private ...

If you’ve ever considered planning your entire vacation around a plastic surgery enhancement, you’re not alone. Medical tourism, or “med travel”, is becoming one of the fastest growing trends in the field of cosmetic surgery. Recipients flock to exotic locations like Columbia, Singapore, or Thailand to have medical procedures performed at a significantly lower cost than they would in their own country. Rather than wait the years that it might take to have a hip or knee replaced, “medical tourist...

A patient on a transplant waiting list learns she can quickly and less expensively obtain the organ she needs — in Thailand. Another person plans to go to Brazil for affordable plastic surgery. While both are legal, is either ethical? And should their physicians encourage or discourage the practice of "medical tourism?" ...

Faced with weeks-long waits for private practice dental appointments—and pricey bills once services are rendered—tens of thousands of British nationals are flying to the Czech Republic for quicker and cheaper dental treatment. But experts warn that this places a potentially disastrous stress on an already overburdened Czech health care system, and may lead to excessive wait times for local patients as well...