Abstract
Health-related travel, often labelled ‘medical tourism’, involves intranational and transnational movement for the purpose of obtaining medical care. Though many countries arrange state-facilitated and publicly-funded cross-border health care, medical tourism typically involves individually planned medical care that is purchased as an out-of-pocket expense. Medical tourism is a contested concept and the phrase is used in many different ways. Acknowledging the plurality of manners in which this phrase is used, otherwise diverse contributors to ethical, social and economic analysis of the subject agree that medical tourism refers to the practice of individuals who intentionally travel for the purpose of obtaining desired medical interventions. The phrase does not encompass business travel, holiday travel or other instances in which individuals travel to a region beyond their country of residence and then, with no prior plans for seeking medical treatment abroad, require health care following injury or illness.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Bodies Across Borders |
| Subtitle of host publication | The Global Circulation of Body Parts, Medical Tourists and Professionals |
| Publisher | Ashgate Publishing Ltd. |
| Pages | 95-113 |
| Number of pages | 19 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781409457183 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781409457176 |
| State | Published - Jan 1 2015 |