Article Summary
More than a million Americans are estimated to have gone to other countries in 2014 for medical procedures. Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock was among those Americans who travelled abroad in 2014 to partake in what is being referred to as "medical tourism". From his own experience and those of others who had also travelled for medical procedures, Spurlock found that there can be distinct advantages to medical tourism for certain patients and procedures. Those advantages include: The level of care offered in many hospitals, with the best hospitals reportedly meeting or exceeding Western standards; Significantly lower costs, examples of which include a heart bypass operation in the United States that typically runs $88,000 can cost as little as $31,500 in Costa Rica, and hip replacement surgery that averages $33,000 domestically is only $12,400 in Thailand; The ability to combine medical procedures with vacations to amazing locations around the globe.
Source: Sean Redlitz, " Surf, sand ... and surgery? Inside the world of medical tourism," cnn.com, February 6, 2015
Refer to the Article Summary. Assume that foreign governments begin to publicize their existing medical services to American medical tourists and more Americans consider hip-replacement surgery to improve their quality of life. What will happen in the market for hip-replacement surgery as a result of these two factors?
◦ Demand will increase, but these two factors will not shift the supply curve.
◦ Supply will increase, but these two factors will not shift the demand curve.
◦ Demand and supply will both increase.
◦ Demand will increase and supply will decrease.