Josef Woodman, author of the first comprehensive guide to medical tourism “Patients Beyond Borders”, recognized expert in the medical tourism industry, and member of Satori World Medical’s Strategic Advisory Board shares his thoughts on how the landmark healthcare reform bill will affect the medical tourism industry.

First Thoughts on the Dawnings of Healthcare Reform: How the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Is Likely to Affect Medical Tourism

Author: Josef Woodman, Patients Beyond Borders; CEO, Healthy Travel Media, LLC

Over the course of the past several months, and particularly since the recent signing of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (otherwise informally known as the Healthcare Reform Bill), I’ve been asked by media and industry people how this new and landmark legislation will affect cross-border medical travel.

The short answer is: who knows?  Most components of the Act take effect gradually, and implementation is likely to be glacial.  At this point it’s not clear the Act will stand, as more than 14 states have now filed lawsuits challenging its constitutionality.  Additional challenges are sure to arise, further muddying the already roiled waters.

Should the Act remain in place, we will undoubtedly see increased burdens on our already groaning healthcare infrastructure.  In accommodating 30+ million new healthcare consumers, all but the wealthiest Americans will likely experience an increased and acute shortage of primary care physicians, nurses, and administrative staff, resulting in longer waits for treatment.  Thus, while the number of uninsured American patients will decrease, the ranks of the underinsured will rise dramatically, as limited resources are triaged by insurers and providers across the healthcare reform landscape. 

In short, the US healthcare system under healthcare reform will likely morph into more of a public-private system found in the UK, and emerging in Canada.  Not unlike the US education system, we’ll see lower cost—albeit less accessible— public care for those who cannot otherwise afford more expensive private care, financed by luxury insurance plans, concierge services or out-of-pocket payments.

To avoid the scenarios experienced by overburdened government-regulated healthcare systems in the UK, Canada and Germany, US insurers and providers would be prudent to take proactive measures.  Thinking globally wouldn’t hurt.  For example, to help mitigate the pressures of our over-burdened healthcare system, US insurers might aggressively accelerate efforts to include cross-border treatment plans for American-accredited facilities overseas. Cost savings can be substantial, even at the wholesale rates.  In like manner, leading US providers should be aggressively planning the build-out of more cost-efficient international facilities and/or creating sustainable affiliations with JCI-accredited hospitals abroad.

With or without healthcare reform, most Americans will in the coming months and years experience compacted access to the relative luxury of quality care their mothers and fathers enjoyed.  However, greater transparencies in quality assurance, cost-comparison and patient satisfaction data will lead consumers to an impressive array of informed, cost-effective choices for medical care, often international in scope.