Panel Discussion

This session addresses globalization and the outsourcing of medical jobs. It includes a focus on the international migration of health workers. The developed world has come to rely more and more upon workers from developing countries, taking scarce human resources from areas that can ill afford to lose them. Meanwhile, employers in developing countries refuse to engage in long-term strategies to recruit, educate and retain workers at home. Study findings and recommendations will be discussed. The session includes a discussion of health tourism in general and its impact and implications for developing countries like India, in particular, where private sector development attracts patients for relatively cheaper care: the uninsured, or patients who would prefer not to wait for a treatment under a National Health Insurance system or under arrangements where private health insurance schemes are seeking "bargain care". Challenges against resource competition to sustaining a viable public healthcare infrastructure populace will be examined. The session also features a US union perspective on medical tourism and a discussion of the union’s approach to preventing employers from imposing this cost-saving approach on employees. The United Steelworkers holds that the right to safe, secure and dependable health care in one's own country should not be surrendered for any reason -- and certainly not to increase the profit margins of corporate investors.

Session Objectives: 1. Describe and discuss the impact and implications of the international migration of medical workers. 2. Describe and discuss the findings of a research study of the interrnational migration of health care workers undertaken by Public Services International and its union affiliates and the multi-year campaign launched in response. 3. Describe and discuss the phenomenon of health tourism and its implications 4. Critically assess India's public health sector and governmental initiatives to note the unfilled gaps in health services and health needs. 5. Understand and discuss the perspective and experience of the United Steelworkers in opposition to medical tourism.

CE Credits: CME, Health Education (CHES), Nursing