Operation Vacation. Or, "I went on holiday and all I got was this lousy liver!"

Rising healthcare costs, long wait lists, and the unavailability of medical procedures have all given a boost to medical tourism. Particularly in the Global South.

I previously hadn't given these issues much thought, but CBC Radio 1's The Current episode on ethical dilemmas surrounding medical tourism shook up my moral barometer. Individual and systemic power dynamics, privilege and the question of 'what is travel' all get wrapped up in a mess of questions as soon as the big businesses of pharmaceuticals, medicine and tourism meet.

For example, should luxury medical tourism be encouraged given that it can increase the health care costs for locals and draw doctors away from local practices? Should physicians continue to be allowed to deny follow-up care to patients who had procedures done in foreign countries? Should patients accept the full cost of their decisions to find medical care abroad so that negative outcomes or complications are not unfairly borne by taxpayers?

Not every Canadian heading to Mexico at this time of year is looking to lie on a beach. Increasingly some are stretching out on operating tables for surgery without a long waiting list, at affordable prices. And for some, the ethical question is not should they be going to another country and paying but rather how can Canada be so unethical to keep them waiting. We look at the conundrum and the consequences of an Operation Vacation.

Often, medical tourism resorts feature visible divides between the guests and hosts, and I would say symptomatic of the wider systems of power and privilege at play within tourism. But I have also met dozens of medical tourists, particularly while staying in hostels. Notably, the majority were themselves low-income or uninsured.

So my personal (limited) experience with medical tourism strays from the idea that operation vacations are exclusively for elites. For patients who cannot afford treatment in their home country, or looking for experimental cures, hoping borders might be the last refuge.

In some ways, it can be argued that aspects of medical tourism put control back into the hands of the patients. They can quite literally ‘shop around’ for the destination and procedure that best suits their needs. It seems like a natural extension of neo-liberalism or free market capitalism across a more globalised world.

The obvious downsides are the often poor information sharing that prevents consumers from making the best choices for their health, and the perpetuation of global 'haves' and 'have-nots' where health goes to those who can afford it.

(IMAGE: Ben Ngai Graphic Illustrations)