Medical tourism and Globalization of Health care: Closing Case

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Medical tourism and Globalization of Health care: Closing Case
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Despite the general assumption that healthcare services are delivered where they are consumed, many Americans are increasingly seeking MRI and Radiology surgeries internationally. One of the main benefits of this is that the gap in the demand and supply for these services is breached. There are more patients seeking radiology services like MRI, CT scans and X-Ray image reading and interpretation than there are graduate radiologists from medical schools. Because of this discrepancy in demand and supply, these services are often expensive in the United States by up to 10-20 percent as compared to India, which is the preferred destination for a patient seeking these services. For example, the cost of surgery for a leaking artery in India is $10,000 compared to the $60,000 that it would have cost to have the same surgery performed in the United States.
Just like any other supply and demand lead industry, there are beneficiaries and losers of the whole scheme. Indian and United States’ economies appear to be the largest beneficiaries of medical tourism (Connel, 2011). India generates $2 billion in revenues from foreign patients annually from the number of about 150,000 western patients who seek medical assistance. On the other hand, while the majority of its citizens are seeking healthcare services from India, the United States receives up to 25 percent more patients from abroad, especially China that does not have such a robust healthcare system. As China gets wealthier, more and more of its population is willing to spend more on their medical services and as a result, stream into the American hospitals. From this trend, it is only fair to deduce that China will probably be the largest loser in the healthcare industry because they do not seem to have any medical advantage over another count...