Globalization of Health Care
Globalization of Health Care
The globalization of health care has become increasingly more prevalent over the past several years due to technological advancement and the training of foreign doctors around the world. The cost and improving quality of health care in foreign countries has been noticed and is considerably cheaper in comparison to here in the states. There are doctors from India, Mexico, and Singapore who have been educated here in the US as well as the UK, who now run private hospitals in their home countries.
The trend started with the shortage of radiologists in the United States causing a high demand for diagnosing and interpreting medical imagery such as MRI’s, X-Rays, CT scans, and ultrasounds. Due to the high demand and the qualified doctors around the world a new trend has emerged that would have seem unthinkable decades ago. Doctors now are utilizing the Internet to transmit large amounts of data to India and Singapore for other Radiologist to review and diagnose a patient’s MRI on the other side of the world. This in turn is cutting down the workload on the already stretched American Radiologists as well as cutting some cost for the patient. (Hill, 2013, p42) Doctors in these other countries are just as qualified, but are much more affordable considering they aren’t subject to or burdened with the high cost of the facilities, malpractice insurance, government regulations, and other forms of red tape we experience here in the US. Globalization is good for the American economy because it will stimulate competition and bring down domestic costs.
If the marketplace had more influence in this industry over bureaucrats and government the globalization could be more beneficial to the patient. It would give them