« Sometimes the treatment you seek is just one flight away » : causes et limites des nouvelles mobilités de santé étatsuniennes au xxie siècle

Abstract

This article analyzes a new facet of inequalities in the U.S. health care system, namely the rise of health mobility abroad since the 2000s. While the richest US citizens continue to benefit from advanced medicine on the national territory, and while access to health care is decreasing for the poorest, some three million uninsured or underinsured people seek care abroad each year for financial reasons. These migrations from the North to the Souths (Central America, South America and Asia) rely on the US health divide and on border differentials linked to economic globalization; at the same time, these new health mobilities are a source of economic opportunities for the United States and the receiving countries. This work questions the thesis of the "exceptionality" of the American health system by studying the causes but also the limits of the rise of these new health mobilities thanks to an interdisciplinary approach using the tools of political science, social geography and health economics.

Keywords

• United States
• borders
• Medical tourism
• health care inequalities