From my post on the Curious Cat Investing and Economics blog: My guess is that traveling for health care is going to increase greatly in the future. Health costs in the USA are enormous. Costs in Europe are different – often in wait time (or costs to avoid waiting) but another option is available – travel. Countries would be very wise to focus on building up this industry in my opinion. The economic benefits could be huge.
The market is huge and growing. And the rich countries do not appear to be doing very well – especially the USA. The country needs to invest in a rigorous system to ensure world class medical care. It is almost certain the first attack will be attempts to frighten customers by saying your country is unsafe…
On this management improvement blog I continue to encourage the USA to improve the health care system. And some great strides are being made. But, Dr. Deming named the excessive health care costs a deadly disease decades ago and it is much worse today. So much so that the odds of avoiding a huge increase in overseas travel for health care is very unlikely in my opinion – even if we make better progress than I expect toward improving the USA health care system. It is an macro-economic problem and not one easily solved in 5 years or 10 years. The results (as long as countries step in to fill the market need – as has been happening) is people will travel to get health care.
Related: USA Paying More for Health Care – Change Health Care – Health Care Crisis
