Does Medical Tourism Transform Local Healthcare?
Fifty years ago, the notion of Americans traveling to poorer countries for healthcare would have been considered, according to Arnold Milstein, “a lead-in line to a joke.” Now, it’s not only plausible, but appealing, and often the only option for patients lacking insurance or money for care. Milstein, U.S. Health Care Thought Leader at Mercer and a quality care expert, explained that medical tourism has grown much more attractive as healthcare costs have for years outpaced income increases. “Some have analogized it to this idea of cooking a frog one or two degrees” at a time, he said wryly to the audience at NPR West. Milstein joined the panelists — John A Gillean, senior vice president and chief medical officer of CHRISTUS Health, Elizabeth A. Martinez, an anesthesiologist and associate professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Peter Hayes, health benefits strategist at Hannaford Bros. Co — to discuss the rise of medical tourism at an event made possible by a gener
