Health tourism a boon or curse?

Health Tourism A Boon or Curse? What is it? Medical tourism (also called medical travel , health tourism or global health care) is a term initially coined by travel agencies and the mass media to describe the rapidly-growing practice of traveling across international borders to obtain health care . Such services typically include elective procedures as well as complex specialized surgeries such as joint replacement ( knee / hip ), cardiac surgery , dental surgery , and cosmetic surgeries . However, virtually every type of health care, including psychiatry, alternative treatments, convalescent care and even burial services are available. As a practical matter, providers and customers commonly use informal channels of communication-connection-contract, and in such cases this tends to mean less regulatory or legal oversight to assure quality and less formal recourse to reimbursement or redress, if needed. Over 50 countries have identified