One of the most significant aspects of the growth of human civilization in general has been the increasing knowledge about the details of the functioning of the human body, how the system works and how to protect one's body from any external factors that may cause disorders in it. In other words, the historical development of mankind can be marked, among other things, by the advancement in what can be termed now as medical sciences. In fact, this knowledge about body functioning, disorders and how to defend and cure it has played a really noteworthy role as in helping the entire species of human beings to survive through all sorts of adversities of nature where other animals got victimized by them. Thus, it can be easily understood that this particular aspect about medicine and related sciences were something that was highly regarded and revered by men since the earliest times.
A most interesting facet about this entire affair was the fact that unlike other issues, when it used to come to the question of medicine, treatment, etc. the geographical or political boundaries were simply ignored ever since the times of ancient history. For instance, even in ancient Europe, pilgrims from Greece have been accounted to have travelled to a land as far as the little province called Epidauria, situated in the Saronic Gulf in the Mediterranean region, which was believed to be the abode of the great God Asklepios, the divine healer. Interestingly enough, this little piece of record from the historical times accounts for something which went on to become one of the most popular modern trends all over the world where people from all across the globe travel from place to place for the purpose of treatment of various diseases, and is often referred to as health tourism. The phrase health tourism was initially thought up by the mass media channels and was enthusiastically adopted by the travel and tourism agencies all over, to explain the practice of travelling across to other lands not just merely for vacation purposes but to get treatment for various diseases and attain proper health care. Mainly due to the prevalent use of the term nowadays, everyone confuses this to be a modern phenomenon, but just like the case of the Greek pilgrims above, this practice have been quite rampant among people for ages in history. In fact, the concept of sanitariums or spa town can also be described in similar lines as being early forms of ‘health tourism'.
The way things stand now in this respect; health tourism has now been officially recognized as a nationalized industry in nearly fifty countries all over the world. The lion's share in this entire array of practice encompass complex operations such as replacing the knee or hip or other similar joints and even specialized surgeries like dental, cosmetic or cardiac. But then, these do not comprise the whole story as health tourism now also include almost every kind and form of treatment and health care methods including psychiatry, counseling sessions, alternative medicine and treatments and even rehabilitation purposes. Another quite significant and growing tendency has been that of medical tours with the object of reproduction related purposes such as surrogate pregnancy, in-vitro fertilization, artificial insemination and other similar methods of reproductive techniques like freezing embryos for retro-production. Now, for obvious reasons, due to the sensitivity of such issues of religious and moral as well as ethical nature, the entire practice of health tourism procedures have very often come under thorough scrutiny and sparked controversies in different corners of the world irrespective of the race or religion.
According to experts, despite the process being in practice for thousands of years among mankind, this sudden upsurge in health tourism has been triggered off by a number of factors from different issues and origins and of varying degree of significance. One of the most primary and basic reasons for this rising popularity can be assigned to the fact of globalization and the functioning of the present day market economy which has resulted in high medical costs for health care and treatment in most of the advanced and first world countries. As a result, a major section of the population, especially the middle class and the working class strata of the society have found themselves literally in dire straits as to take care of themselves in situations of such health related indispositions. Another added problem to accompany this already prevailing state of crisis has been the refusal of the insurance agencies to cover up for the expenditure in treatment for a variety of diseases and ailments. Hence, most of the people who have been victimized by the circumstances have chosen to opt for medical facilities abroad rather than relying on the medical with regard to the socio economic system of their own countries. Among the direct implications of this development, has been the increasing popularity of comparatively lesser developed nations in economic terms, of Asia and Latin America as major medical tourist destinations. In fact, all these nations have also developed their own specialized infrastructure for various specialized purposes and just in case of normal tourism industry, a particular place such as Amazon is popular for its rain forests and the flora and fauna or a spot like Miami is known for its beach, similarly certain Asian, Latin American and even European nations have made a name for themselves in some particular fields of medical treatments. On a more elaborate note, in order to elucidate on the above mentioned facts, one can consider certain instances like that of a South American country like Brazil which has slowly, gradually but steadily developed a state of the art infrastructure for carrying out cosmetic surgeries even of the most complex nature. In fact, other than US, Brazil was one of those first countries to boast a JCI accredited medical facilities which has currently increase to around twelve such institutions and every year a huge number of people from the various nooks and corners of the world pours in to these facilities to get a decent job of cosmetic surgery done at a much reasonable medical charge. India, one of the major developing countries in Asia with its own set of economic troubles, has made a similar name for itself in the field of medicine and health care and in the process carved out a niche for itself in the domain or sphere of certain complicated joint replacement surgeries as well as the treatment and surgeries related to the cardio vascular system. With the medical costs lying almost at around a tenth of similar treatments in UK or US, the authorities are keen to develop the health tourism industry of the nation keeping the primary focus on the fact of low medical costs that most certainly appeal to people, especially from the developed countries of the west. With a predicted estimate worth of $2 billion in another three years, both the government as well as the private authorities are eager to turn this into a lucrative source of foreign exchange, which is like the Holy Grail to any underdeveloped nation, and then pay even more attention to the issue of development of the infrastructure and thus in turn ensure the growth and development of this field even more.
Among the other similar factors which lead to the development of health tourism is the easiness of international travel besides the fact that undertaking such tours has also become comparatively cheaper in a post globalized scenario. Previously even for an individual belonging to the middle class strata of the society from any developed country from Europe or the United States, thus earning in a currency with a higher value, it used to be almost unthinkable to travel abroad for purely and solely medical and health care purposes. However, due to the process of the development of a globalized market economy leading to an increased connectivity among nations all across the globe and a standardization of certain other factors like infrastructural support, facilities and expenses, taking a medical tour may often turn out to be the most feasible and reasonable solution to certain health problems.Moreover the post globalized economy has also witnessed an unprecedented increase in both the number of routes as well as flights and thus opening up new avenues and more facilities to opt for in the medical field. Another significant reason as to why people from these countries decide to go for the option of health tourism so often is that in most of these developed countries, the ‘affordable' medical facilities often involve a long waiting period for carrying out certain procedures which can be really annoying and disadvantageous at times for the people who would rather spend a reasonable amount of money to fly to some other country, get the medical job done at a much lower price and get back to his home town in a better shape than to stand in a queue and wait for his or her turn for months.
In the earliest days of the advent of this phenomenon, it used to be mostly word of mouth and personal contacts playing the most significant role in these travels for health care purposes. But with each passing day, the concept of health tourism went on becoming familiar and gained more and more popularity among the masses and very soon the present ‘system' if it can be called so, came in to place taking a definitive shape and form. According to this system of availing the facility of health tourism, an individual has to get in touch with an agent or rather an agency which is basically the health tourism service provider along with all the necessary papers and documents looking for health care and medical treatment abroad. The papers must include all the required official documents revealing the nature of complaint, the disorder one is suffering from, the professional medical views and opinions of local medical practitioners and the history of the patient's medical diagnosis. One can be however always asked for producing certain additional documents, going by which, he or she is advised by medical professionals about the required treatment to cure the disease. Next, the agents of the service provider discuss and sort out the issues such as the estimated costs and expenses including the travelling, stay and treatment, the selection of the hospitals and clinics, where and how long to stay, etc. and only then the patient party applies for a medical visa on the basis of a recommendation letter by the board from the relevant embassy once the processes of signing the consent bonds and agreements are over and done with. Depending on the country selected, the length of the process of acquiring the visa may vary. For instance, according to certain agreements between the governments of US and Brazil the visa obtaining process almost takes no time; whether one is travelling from Brazil to US or vice versa. Once the visa is acquired, the patient party flies off to the medical destination accompanied by a case executive assigned to the patient by the health tourism service provider, on who rests the responsibility of taking care of the patient party as in their food, lodging and even the medical treatment among others. In case of any problems, he is supposed to contact his agency via the embassy and sort it out with the authorities so that the patient party does not have face any kind of trouble. After the entire procedure of medication and cure is done and over with, the patient may return to his or her home country or may also stay back in the destination country for some days depending upon the expiry date on the visa.