Medical tourism (also called medical travel, health tourism or global healthcare) was initially defined by travel agencies and the mass media to describe the rapidly-growing practice of traveling across international borders to obtain health care. Medical tourism is rapidly becoming a current phenomenon for cosmetic surgery and for complicated general surgery and dental procedures. Medical tourists are increasingly willing to travel overseas to destinations such as India and Thailand for cost savings on many different types of medical procedures. Spurred on by the needs of Baby Boomers and more than 60 million uninsured and underinsured Americans, the medical tourism industry in the United States is expanding rapidly. |