Risks and Challenges in Medical Tourism

Jill Hodges, MPH, MSL, is a writer and editor who explores how globalization affects individuals' lives.Leigh Turner, PhD, is associate professor at the University of Minnesota's Center for Bioethics, School of Public Health, and College of Pharmacy.Ann Marie Kimball, MD, MPH, is senior program officer of Epidemiology and Surveillance, Infectious Disease, and Global Health at the Gates Foundation.

A multidisciplinary international team examines the safety, ethics, and health implications of the emerging global market for health care, and the issues that arise when patients cross borders for medical procedures they cannot afford or access at home, from liposuction to kidney transplants.Risks and Challenges in Medical Tourism: Understanding the Global Market for Health Services provides an in-depth, comprehensive assessment of the benefits and risks when health care becomes a global commodity. The collection includes contributions from leading scholars in law and public policy, medicine and public health, bioethics, anthropology, health geography, and economics.This timely and informative handbook looks at medical tourism from the perspective of some of the major regions that send and receive medical tourists, including the United States, the European Union, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. Contributors examine how government agencies, medical tourism companies, international hospital chains, and other organizations promote medical tourism and the globalization of health care. The topics explored include the legal remedies available to medical tourists when procedures go awry; potential consequences when patients cross borders for medical procedures that are illegal in their home countries; the relationship of medical tourism to international spread of infectious disease; and the lack of adequate transnational policies and regulations governing the global market for health services.

A multidisciplinary international team examines the safety, ethics, and health implications of the emerging global market for health care, and the issues that arise when patients cross borders for medical procedures they cannot afford or access at home, from liposuction to kidney transplants.

1. Introduction: Health Care Goes GlobalLeigh Turner and Jill R. HodgesPART I. DRIVERS, DEPARTURE POINTS, AND DESTINATIONS: SITUATED STUDIES OF MEDICAL TOURISM2. The United States: Destination and Departure PointTricia J. Johnson, Andrew Garman, Samuel F. Hohmann, Steven Meurer, and Molly Allen3. Medical Tourism the European WayRichard D. Smith, Helena Legido-Quigley, Neil Lunt, and Daniel Horsfall4. Medical Tourism in Southeast Asia: Opportunities and ChallengesChurnrurtai Kanchanachitra, Cha-aim Pachanee, Manuel M. Dayrit, and Viroj Tangcharoensathien5. Socialized Medicine Meets Private Industry: Medical Tourism in Costa RicaCourtney A. LeePART II. BORDER CROSSINGS: RISKS, CONTROVERSIES, AND CONSEQUENCES6. Unseen Travelers: Medical Tourism and the Spread of Infectious DiseaseJill R. Hodges and Ann Marie Kimball7. Perilous Voyages: Travel Abroad for Organ Transplants and Stem Cell TreatmentsDominique Martin8. Cross-Border Assisted Reproductive Care: Global Quests for a ChildAndrea WhittakerPART III. LEGAL AND REGULATORY QUESTIONS9. Into the Void: The Legal Ambiguities of an Unregulated Medical Tourism MarketNathan Cortez10. Medical Outlaws or Medical Refugees?: An Examination of Circumvention TourismI. Glenn Cohen11. Independent Health Care Accreditation: Medical Tourism and Other International AspectsStephen T. Green and Hannah KingPART IV. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS12. Medical Travel and the Global Health Services Marketplace: Identifying Risks to Patients, Public Health, and Health SystemsLeigh Turner13. Medical Tourism Facilitators: Ethical Concerns about Roles and ResponsibilitiesJeremy Snyder, Valorie A. Crooks, Alexandra Wright, and Rory Johnston14. Conclusion: High Stakes MarketAnn Marie Kimball and Jill R. HodgesAbout the Editors and ContributorsIndex