As the world becomes increasingly developed and interconnected, goods and services are becoming more widely available to growing populations of people all across the world. This holds true not just for the average, everyday physical consumer product, but also for such industry sectors as health care and insurance. More and more people are becoming aware of the differences in both the cost and the quality of medical services and facilities available overseas and are more and more capable of accessing these treatments.

For a long time, medical tourism, also known as medical travel, has long been considered the realm of rich people looking for cheaper alternatives for elective treatments overseas. However there is a growing trend of a broader variety of people from across the world investigating and partaking of medical tourism. The practice is growing in the US, especially for the baby boomer generation, a demographic which some estimate comprise up to 80 percent of the medical travel market in the country.

The US is not alone however, with many citizens of countries in the Middle East, Africa and around the world availing themselves of medical tourism services. For many years people in the UAE and other Gulf Cooperation Council countries have spent large amounts of money on medical treatments overseas because they could not be performed locally. Similarly, Nigerians spend close to US$ 500 million outside of the country on medical treatment.

Stake holders and vested interests have of course taken note. Governments in countries which have been destinations for medical travel have engaged in plans to spur the development of these industries as a way to make money. Likewise, insurance companies have seen the growth of the medical tourism and have sought to provide low-cost insurance products which will open up new demographic segments of the market to them.

Passport2Health, a recent entry to the UK's health insurance market has introduced an innovative new product that takes advantage of how much more affordable health care can be in other parts of Europe and elsewhere. The new insurance policy will cover policyholders for diagnostic costs in the UK, and then also for receiving treatment abroad. Currently the policy will allow customers to access a network which includes private hospitals in Spain, Germany, Portugal, France, Belgium, Malta, Cyprus and Gran Canaria (one of the Canary Islands), although access to hospitals in Israel and Turkey may be added soon. This new policy from Passport2Health includes cover for door-to-door, round-trip transportation, accommodation and recovery care; it also will pay for a companion to accompany the patient for care.

Similar policies are seeing more attention across the globe, both from individuals and organizations that are looking for health coverage while trying to manage costs as well as insurance companies that are trying to develop appropriate coverage options to reach these new market segments. As healthcare grows more and more expensive in more developed countries, and in the US especially, options which take advantage of the reduced costs of care in other countries become more attractive, however it can occasionally raise concerns about the quality of care and legal liability.