Abstract:
This research is a qualitative research. The objectives are studying, analyzing, and understanding social dimensions of medical tourism, exploring important issues and impacts that have already occurred or may occur from the promotion of medical tourism. The researcher used qualitative research methods consisting of documentary review and personal interviews of 20 persons who are knowledgeable about medical tourism and/or its impacts. Then the data were analyzed and written in descriptive form. From the research, it is found that after Thailand economic crisis of 1997, private hospitals had to find new ways to substitute their income from Thai customers by accepting foreign customers/patients from higher income countries. Later, the government faced serious continuous deficits for several years. As a result, a policy has been proposed to develop Thailand into a Medical Hub of Asia, as Thailand already has tourism as strong economic engine. In addition, there are a group of private hospitals that have received accreditation and high health service standard. With these strengths, Thailand has developed plans and policies for becoming a Medical Hub of Asia. This move has been considered from a very positive outlook with potentially high benefits for the country. However, considertation and caution should be made regarding the impacts of medical tourism. The social dimensions of medical tourism were explored on these important issues of: 1. Concepts and definitions of medical tourism and medical tourists, 2. The effect on medical workforce and cost of medical treatment, 3. The impact of globalization and the commoditization/commodification process, 4. Hospital quality standard and accreditation, 5. The impact of the spread of drug-resistant bacteria and major infectious diseases. Medical tourism plays a part in making modern-day medical care a commodity that caters to foreign tourists and people with higher income. This subject is complex and requires understanding from many angles. It is imperative that the issue be considered from aspects that have rarely been discussed, for example the definitions and meanings of medical tourism and medical tourists, the phenomenon of neoliberal globalization in which medical tourism is intertwined with the social equity debates arising from the promotion of such a business and industry. A clearer understanding will lead to further development of approaches to promote health equity and benefit distribution to society as a whole.