079 - Future of Medical Tourism

The concept of "Medical Tourism" has risen out of massive inconsistencies in the price of the exact same quality and types of medical treatment in various countries. However, what is visible today is only the tip of the iceberg, and that iceberg will sink the medical systems of at least a few countries.

The reason for this is relatively simple, but often overlooked. The vast majority of major health problems in wealthier countries today are trivial to permanently resolve using gene therapies. The technologies associated with gene therapies have also advanced to the point where it is already relatively trivial to develop and cheaply produce them.

Diabetes, Heart Disease, Obesity, Alzheimer's, and many of the other conditions that the least ethical countries in the world make billions of medical dollars on every year could be resolved to such a degree that medical industry revenue in those countries is cut by 50% or more within a couple of years. Many life-enhancing gene therapies could also massively alter the Fitness industry, and general healthy lifestyle and life extension focused industries today, as gene therapies for those are equally trivial.

Thus far, the red tape of archaic and barbaric governance systems has slowed research in this field and attempted to make it impossible to offer gene therapies to the public in many countries. The for-profit interests of major companies with heavy-handed lobbying efforts have reinforced this. However, those are stop-gap measures, fundamentally incapable of halting technological progress and accessibility.

This leaves us with an inescapable near-future, where one of two scenarios is most likely to occur:

• Statistically, at least one country in the world will likely choose not to be completely incompetent, and allow medical tourism for the purpose of gene therapies. The development of these gene therapies is also something that a country could welcome, establishing a hub of both scientific innovation and commerce.

• Even if no country proves competent, the obvious alternative emerges, gene therapy medical tourism via cruise ships. The moment they enter international waters therapies may be administered, and short cruises could be made for this specific purpose. This method has already been used for the development and testing of gene therapies.

Countries with a long history of doubling down on the worst possible approach in medicine, like the US, will be hit hard by this change even if they do the most rational (and least likely) thing today and suddenly begin to act wisely. This is a matter of damage control, and the longer they wait the greater the damage will be when it hits.

The age of Medical Idiocracy will end, and it will mean bankruptcy for those who profiteered on human suffering.