The Effect of Medical Travel on U.S. Healthcare

The increase in American medical travel has sparked a heated debate about whether it is beneficial to the U.S. healthcare system. Advocates of medical travel, such as GlobalChoice, believe that Americans seeking less costly medical care abroad will lower the cost of healthcare in the U.S. – naming it as a solution to rising U.S. healthcare costs. Essentially, employers and insurers pay less for procedures abroad, and as a result leave less demand for expensive U.S. care. This gives the cost of U.S. healthcare nowhere to go but down.

Those against medical travel ascertain that it may damage the healthcare system in America – lowering the cost only by 2 percent, providing insurers with too many extra duties, and leaving some patients without the care they need. They claim that because U.S. healthcare costs relate to supply-side issues and not demand, the cost of U.S. healthcare will not sufficiently decrease. In addition, those that travel abroad for medical care are often those who pay into the U.S. system - helping to pay for the elderly, poor, and others who can’t or don’t want to travel for care – and are essentially increasing costs for those groups by spending healthcare dollars in other countries.

The medical travel industry only continues to grow, and the absolute effect it has on the U.S. healthcare system is yet to be seen. Either way, healthcare in the U.S. will have to cope with the increase of medical travel, and the pros and cons that come with it.