Medical Tourism: Implications for India

Abstract

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), an outcome of Bretton Woods Conference, was a trade pact to pursue the objective of free trade in goods. The 8th Uruguay Round of GATT negotiations launched in Punta Del Este in 1986 went well beyond trade in goods and extended to trade in areas like intellectual property, investment and services, resulting in agreements such as TRIPS, TRIMS and GATS. GATS, The General Agreement on Trade in Services, internationalized trade in services and gave a momentum to international trade in services, including healthcare services. The Agreement specifies the four modes of supply of services, one of these being consumption abroad. In this mode a consumer who needs services moves to the country offering the service as in the case of a student going overseas for higher education or a person seeking medical treatment in a foreign country. The GATS gave a boost to medical tourism in some Asian countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and India.This Paper after distinguishing medical tourism from health/wellness tourism, traces the growth of medical tourism in Asian countries and points out the factors contributing to this growth. It then specifically highlights the reasons why India has become the preferred destination for medical tourism. What follows is a critical analysis of the opportunities and challenges posed by medical tourism for India. It concludes by opining that internationalization of healthcare services in India should not be at the cost of health injustice to the Indians, especially for those who need health justice the most!