Medical Tourism

clipped from blogs.wsj.com A McKinsey report on global medical tourism says most medical tourists are leaving home to seek more advanced and higher-quality care — often the wealthy in the developing world traveling to the U.S. and other developed countries. Just ask the Mayo Clinic or the Cleveland Clinic, which have catered to well-heeled international patients for decades. In total, somewhere between 60,000 and 85,000 people a year travel to a foreign country to receive care, the WSJ reports. Only 13% of those are people looking for cheaper prices. Another 15%, largely from Canada and the U.K., do it to circumvent the long waiting times. The big question is whether insurers, employers and the government will begin encouraging the practice.