Title: Outbound US medical tourism to selected Asian countries

Authors: Matiur Rahman

Addresses: MBA Department, College of Business, McNeese State University, Lake Charles, LA 70609, USA

Abstract: Medical tourism is expanding exponentially in the age of globalisation. People are increasingly seeking comparable and cheaper medical procedures in other countries in light of their rapidly escalating costs in home countries. This paper attempts to explore this issue of growing importance by studying the likely effects of relative costs of 12 selected medical procedures on the number of US medical tourists to India, Singapore and Thailand during 2008. Time-series-cross-section (TSCS) data are used. There are weak evidences of positive causal influences of relative costs on outbound US medical tourism. The empirical findings of the paper conform to the inference drawn from the mathematical model, as developed in this paper.

Keywords: medical procedures; relative costs; waiting times; affordability; globalisation; USA; United States; orthopaedics; weight loss; cardiac surgery; cancer treatments; cosmetic surgery; spine surgeries; outbound tourism; medical tourists; Asia; cheapness; comparable procedures; cheaper procedures; cost escalation; India; Singapore; Thailand; time series cross sections; causal influences; mathematical models; behavioural research; healthcare research; medical tourism.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBHR.2010.037081

International Journal of Behavioural and Healthcare Research, 2010 Vol.2 No.1, pp.75 - 84

Published online: 23 Nov 2010 *

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