One of the world’s most respected journals, The Economist, suggests this week that Medical Tourism is the proverbial tide that lifts all boats. In an article headlined “Importing Competition,” the magazine says the “coming boom in medical travel could help both rich and poor.”

By “rich,” they mean the United States and the developed economies of the west — not wealthy individuals. By “poor,” they mean the Latin American, Asian, Eastern European and African countries that are becoming medical tourism destinations.

The argument in “poor” countries against medical tourism is that providing private medical infrastructure for foreign patients will divert resources from improving health care locally. But The Economist asserts:

But the private sector cannot be blamed for the failings of state-run health bureaucracies in developing countries, which neglected the poor long before medical tourists arrived. And the foreigners’ arrival could improve things in developing countries, for the poor as well as the rich. Although the hospitals that cater to medical tourists will of course employ local staff, they will also create jobs, tempt home émigré doctors and nurses, encourage locals to train as medics, spread know-how and treat local people.

An argument against medical tourism from the point of view of the “rich” is that the United States (for example) needs to focus on cutting costs and improving efficiency of its own healthcare system rather than having patients go overseas. The Economist suggests that medical tourism is part of the solution, not part of the problem:

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Dr. Andrew Weil, MD, is a prolific author, perhaps best known for establishing and popularizing the field of integrative medicine, which combines conventional medical treatments and alternative treatments for which there is some high-quality scientific evidence of their safety and effectiveness. His web site, DrWeil.com, is among the most visited medical sites on the Internet. The “Ask Dr. Weil” column, from the site, is a cottage industry unto itself; “Dr. Weil has raised dispensing health advice to an art form,” says reviewer Erica Jorgensen at Amazon of his bestseller Healthy Aging: A Lifelong Guide to Your Physical and Spiritual Well-Being.

But I didn’t know until yesterday that Dr. Weil had ever had anything to say about medical tourism. I really should have known better. In an “Ask Dr. Weil” column from last fall, he confronts the issues involved in medical travel head-on, concluding:

Keep an eye on the growing trend of medical tourism. I predict it will become more prominent in coming years.

This, in response to a writer who said he was “appalled” that a friend was going to India for heart surgery.

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The National Center for Policy Analysis, in an article released today, concludes that “as more insured patients begin to travel abroad for low-cost medical procedures, medical tourism will result in sorely needed competition in the American health care industry.”

The NCPA is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy research organization with a goal of developing and promoting private alternatives to government regulation and control. The latest analysis was prepared by Devon Herrick, who also authored a lengthier study of medical tourism and travel in Nov. 2007 titled Medical Tourism: Global Competition in Health Care.

The latest analysis recommends direct public policy changes at the state and federal level:

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Relaaaaaaax. It’s not a true story. It’s not based on a true story. It’s a work of complete fiction by the master — perhaps the inventor — of the medical thriller genre, Robin Cook. “Foreign Body,” published Aug. 5, is bound to find an audience; Cook, 68, has written a string of bestsellers dating back to the 1970s. “Coma,” the original medical thriller, came out in 1977. It was the “gripping story of patients who check into a hospital for “minor” surgery-and never wake up again.” We’ve had variations on the theme ever since from Cook, a medical doctor. Books. Movies. TV Miniseries. Robin Cook is an industry.

That his latest book comes wrapped with a medical travel and tourism theme shouldn’t be surprising. Cook has always mined the latest headlines for his stories: Organ donation, genetic engineering, fertility treatment, in vitro fertilization and managed care have been a few of the topics that have previously provoked his flights of fancy. His last book, “Critical,” was a tale woven from some of America’s worst fears, and facts, about its own medical system — one in which business issues take precedence over quality of healthcare.

Medical tourism is a natural for Cook. That it has become big enough to attract his attention is testimony more to its popularity, success and safety than it is to its drawbacks and dangers, however. Medical tourism generally, and Indian medical tourism specifically, will continue to thrive, though I wouldn’t choose to read “Foreign Body” to pass the time while on a plane to Delhi for hip surgery any more than, once upon a time, I would have read “Jaws” while relaxing on a small sailing vessel off the shore of Cape Cod.

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