The two faces of medical tourism

The U.S. Census Bureau Press Releases, recently released, show that there are now 47 million Americans without health insurance. They also show that the percentage of children without insurance rose for the second consecutive year.

While congressional hearings can be expected to grapple with this problem and the media salivate it will be interesting to see whether either the hearings or the media, or both, pile on medical tourism or embrace it as a way out of the mess.

Whatever happens in Washington the Asean region can expect savvy Americans to come to the region in droves in order to save money and to get better care. That is the pretty face of medical tourism.

A less attractive profile can be seen emerging from a conference in Istanbul, Turkey that drew experts from 78 countries, where a declaration was signed calling for a total ban on organ trafficking and transplant tourism.

It is a fact that there is an international shortage of suitable transplant organs and this shortage has given rise to shady deals mainly involving the sale of kidneys. The figures vary but it would seem that a very conservative 7000 kidneys are trafficked each year.

Like drug trafficking exploitation and big money are involved. The poor and uneducated donor gets around GBP500 and the broker around GBP50,000 minimum to arrange a transplant for a wealthy patient.

The Declaration published in The Lancet said: “Organ trafficking and transplant tourism violate the principles of equity, justice and respect for human dignity and should be prohibited.”

What can governments do? For a beginning they need to outlaw all advertising that in any way promotes or encourages the organ trade. They also need to increase the supply of legitimate transplant organs within their own borders.

With all the good things happening in medical tourism the last thing the industry needs is to be let down by the exploitative and unscrupulous few who are out to make a quick buck.