With the passage of a health care bill this past week-end by the U.S. House of Representatives, I thought it was time for another post on trade in health services. This time I'll rely on an expert, Lior Herman of ECIPE. From the abstract of Assessing International Trade in Healthcare Services:
Many stories and anecdotal evidence document doctors and patients travelling across the globe to give and receive medical and cosmetic surgeries, dental care and other kinds of treatments. But very little is actually known on the extent to which health services are traded internationally. In this new paper, Lior Herman maps and analyses trends in international trade in health services, drawing on a wide range of sources to provide a comprehensive and systematic picture. He finds high levels of movement of foreign health professionals between countries and significant presence of foreign healthcare firms in local markets. Cross-border services and patient travel remain low. Given the economic significance of the healthcare sector in overall economic activity, there is scope and unexploited potential for greater international trade in healthcare services.
And from the conclusion:
On the basis of the availability of data this paper finds that a great deal of variation exists within different segments of international trade in healthcare services. For the most part, international trade is conducted through the movement of foreign health professionals between countries, as well as the presence of foreign healthcare firms in local markets. International trade through cross-border activity, whereby healthcare services are provided and consumed in different territories, remains very low. Trade based on the travel of healthcare consumers to foreign markets is also very low but is significantly higher than cross border trade.
...
Given the economic significance of the healthcare sector in overall economic activity, and in particular the high levels of both total and private expenditure on healthcare, it seems that there is scope and unexploited potential for greater international trade in healthcare services. Trade is growing in cross border trade, consumption abroad, commercial presence and movement of professionals. But the greatest potential lies in cross border provision and consumption abroad of services.
