Medical Tourism: International Healthcare Locations and Information

Author: Disabled World (DW)
Updated/Revised Date: 2026/05/30

Contents: Synopsis - Definition - Introduction - Main - Publications - Subtopics

Synopsis: Information on medical tourism and international travel to obtain cheaper, or better, health care and surgery by overseas doctors.

At a Glance

• 1 - An estimated 750,000 Americans traveled abroad for health care in 2007, with projections that around 1.5 million would seek care outside the US in 2008.
• 2 - Savings vary widely by destination, ranging from about 20-30% in Brazil to as much as 65-90% in India when compared with US prices.
• 3 - The Medical Tourism Association (MTA) was the first non-profit trade association for the industry, bringing together international hospitals, providers, travel facilitators, and insurance companies.

Topic Definition: Medical Tourism

Medical tourism, sometimes called health tourism, is the practice of traveling to another country to receive medical treatment. For a long time the pattern ran one way, with patients leaving less developed nations to reach major medical centers in wealthier countries for care they could not get at home. That still happens, but the more recent shift has people heading from developed countries to lower-cost destinations abroad, driven by factors like steep domestic health care prices, long wait times for certain procedures, easier and cheaper international travel, and rising standards of care overseas. Cost is not the only motive - some people travel because a treatment they want, such as certain fertility procedures, is not legal where they live. The treatments people seek range from elective and cosmetic work to complex operations like joint replacements and cardiac surgery, and an industry of facilitators and trade groups has grown up to connect patients with hospitals abroad. Accreditation and quality vary a great deal from place to place, though, which keeps the practice both popular and controversial.

Introduction

Several factors that have led to the increasing popularity of medical travel include the high cost of health care, long wait times for certain procedures, the ease, and affordability of international travel, and improvements in both technology and standards of care in many countries.

An estimated 750,000 Americans went abroad for health care in 2007, and the report estimated that a million and a half would seek health care outside the US in 2008. Furthermore, some US employers have begun exploring medical travel programs as a way to cut employee health care costs.

Main Content

Health tourism providers have developed as intermediaries to unite potential medical tourists with provider hospitals and other organizations. Companies are beginning to offer global health care options that will enable North American and European patients to access world health care at discounted prices than domestic care. Medical services typically sought by travelers include elective surgery procedures as well as complex specialized surgeries such as:

• Joint replacement (knee/hip)
• Cardiac surgery
• Dental surgery
• Cosmetic surgeries

Medical tourism for knee/hip replacements has emerged as one of the more widely accepted procedures because of the lower cost and minimal difficulties associated with the traveling to/from the surgery.

Traveling to another country for fertility treatments. The main reasons for fertility tourism are legal regulation of the sought procedure in the home country, or lower price. In-vitro fertilization, donor insemination and surrogacy are major procedures involved.

Dental tourism involves individuals seeking dental care outside their local healthcare systems.

Safety

Accreditation and other measures of quality vary widely around the world, and risks and ethical issues still make medical tourism a controversial topic.

Medical Tourism Association (MTA), the first non-profit trade association for medical tourism, is made up of international hospitals, healthcare providers, medical travel facilitators, insurance companies, and other affiliated companies and members with the common goal of promoting medical tourism in a global environment.

Popular medical travel destinations include:

Popular Cosmetic Surgery Travel Destinations Include:

How Much Can You Save?

Using U.S. costs across a variety of specialties and procedures as a benchmark, average range of savings for the most-traveled destinations: