Article on Industry reaction to Medical Tourism by Candace Gwaltney

Author mentions that inurance company WellPoint announced a pilot program for Medical Tourism which prompted the Indiana Legislature (Bill 1084) to take a protectionism stance by Rep. Craig R. Fry and echoed by Dr. Richard Feldman.  The points made by Feldman around his concern are valid in that forcing frail patients to travel abroad is not desirable, however, he did not have objection to patients going abroad on a purly elective basis. This is actually the case in the Wellpoint program as described in the article. The insurer mentioned that is providing medical tourism as an option to a select company is Aetna. BCBS SC's new initiative is also mentioned.

The author also cites a facilitator stating that they are seeing more cases for carida, spinal, orthopedic and dental procedures.

http://www.bizvoicemagazine.com/media/archives/09mayjun/MedicalTourism.pdf

The actual Bill 1084 mentioned in the article can be found here:
http://www.in.gov/legislative/bills/2009/HB/HB1084.1.html

Gallup Poll

The poll shows that the likelihood of using a foreign option increases to above 50% if the person surveyed did not have insurance, was told the quality would be equal or better and the costs would be lower.

Considering there were 48 million americans without insurance in 2009, this is a significant number that, if requiring treatment, might be likely to look abroad for options.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/118423/americans-consider-crossing-borders-medical-care.aspx