title: How Medical Tourism Enables Preferential Access to Care: Four Patterns from the Canadian Context.
abstract: Medical tourism is the practice of traveling across international borders with the intention of accessing medical care, paid for out-of-pocket. This practice has implications for preferential access to medical care for Canadians both through inbound and outbound medical tourism. In this paper, we identify four patterns of medical tourism with implications for preferential access to care by Canadians: (1) Inbound medical tourism to Canada's public hospitals; (2) Inbound medical tourism to a First Nations reserve; (3) Canadian patients opting to go abroad for medical tourism; and (4) Canadian patients traveling abroad with a Canadian surgeon. These patterns of medical tourism affect preferential access to health care by Canadians by circumventing domestic regulation of care, creating jurisdictional tensions over the provision of health care, and undermining solidarity with the Canadian health system.
authors.affiliation: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada. jcs12@sfu.ca.
authors.forename: Jeremy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Snyder
authors.affiliation: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada.
authors.forename: Rory
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Johnston
authors.affiliation: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada.
authors.forename: Valorie A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Crooks
authors.affiliation: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada.
authors.forename: Jeff
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Morgan
authors.affiliation: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada.
authors.forename: Krystyna
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Adams
mesh_terms: D002170:Canada; D003695:Delivery of Health Care; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D057193:Medical Tourism
keywords: Canada; Equity; Medical tourism; Preferential access