Вісник Харківського національного університету внутрішніх справ (Dec 2022)
Types and incentives for medical tourism in Ukraine
Abstract
It has been proven that the definition of the concept of tourism does not imply a mandatory border crossing. In this regard, domestic and external medical tourism have been highlighted, each of which is of great importance for the state. Domestic tourism is aimed at providing the state's economy with the necessary labor resources and is a prerequisite for the survival of the state through ensuring the restoration (social reproduction) of the population, while external tourism is aimed at filling the state budget, financial support for medical tourism entities and their employees (primarily highly qualified specialists), popularizing the state and its regions, and facilitating contacts for organizing investments in the tourism, recreation and medical sectors of Ukraine. An analysis of relations between various participants in the field of medical tourism has been carried out and proposals have been made for legal incentives of the development of three main types of medical tourism in Ukraine. These three types of medical tourism have been identified and characterized according to the criteria for determining the goals for the consumers of tourist services: 1) health tourism; 2) classical medical tourism: domestic and external (with the aim of obtaining relatively high-quality and relatively inexpensive medical services); 3) medical tourism related to the birth of a child who will receive Ukrainian citizenship. It has been suggested that central and local executive authorities and territorial communities of cities, towns, and villages should more actively use the means of the State's regulatory influence on the activities of business entities as defined in Part 2 of Article 12 “Means of State Regulation of Economic Activity” of the Economic Code of Ukraine, as well as other means not prohibited by law. It has been emphasized the importance of licensing of medical and tour operator activities as a means of the State’s regulatory influence on business entities, which is mainly of a controlling nature, but supports effective entities in the field of medical tourism by removing low-quality and inefficient ones from the market. It has been concluded that it is necessary to develop, adopt and implement a programme to popularize Ukrainian health care institutions; the services they provide; the regions in which these institutions are built or opened, etc.
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