Forgione Dana A, Smith Pamela C
College of Business, University of Texas at San Antonio, USA.
J Health Care Finance. 2007 Fall;34(1):27-35.
The health care industry within the United States continues to face unprecedented increases in costs, along with the task of providing care to an estimated 46 million uninsured or underinsured patients. These patients, along with both insurers and employers, are seeking to reduce the costs of treatment through international outsourcing of medical and surgical care. Knows as medical tourism, this trend is on the rise, and the US health care system has not fully internalized the effects this will have on its economic structure and policies. The demand for low-cost health care services is driving patients to seek treatment on a globally competitive basis, while balancing important quality of care issues. In this article, we outline some of the issues facing legislators, health care policy makers, providers, and health service researchers regarding the impact of medical tourism on the US health care system.
美国的医疗保健行业持续面临着前所未有的成本增长，同时还要为估计4600万未参保或参保不足的患者提供医疗服务。这些患者以及保险公司和雇主都在寻求通过医疗和外科护理的国际外包来降低治疗成本。这种被称为医疗旅游的趋势正在兴起，而美国医疗保健系统尚未完全将其对经济结构和政策的影响内在化。对低成本医疗服务的需求促使患者在全球竞争的基础上寻求治疗，同时兼顾重要的护理质量问题。在本文中，我们概述了立法者、医疗保健政策制定者、医疗服务提供者和卫生服务研究人员在医疗旅游对美国医疗保健系统的影响方面所面临的一些问题。
