Quite simply put, medical tourism is a perfect recipe for those who would like to avail of First World health-care at a fraction of First World health-care prices. Not only can a prospective medical tourist arrange to be operated upon cheaper, sooner (as opposed to waiting in line in his home country), and without grappling with the worry of health insurance, but by arranging the trip through a reliable hospital and tour operator one can avail of excellent medical care with exciting vacation packages tailored for foreign patients.

A small but fast-growing number of hospitals in Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America are closely eyeing the growth in world health travel. These hospitals boast of First World health-care facilities with highly-qualified doctors and staff, many of them educated and trained in the West, and capable of carrying out the most complex surgical procedures at the same or even better success rates than those found in the West.


For example, in India, the Escorts Heart Hospital performs coronary bypass surgery at a higher success rate than the New York Presbystrian Hospital, where Bill Clinton was recently operated upon bypass surgery. Also in India, a prominent orthopaedic surgeon performs hip resurfacing, a cutting-edge alternative to hip-joint replacement surgery that has not even been widely adopted in the West. At Thailand’s Bumrungrad hospital, top quality medical care has almost become a commodity. With over 200 doctors being US board certified and almost 250,000 foreign patients being treated per year, Bumrungrad is as much a hospital as much as it is a full-service hotel.


These, and many more, hospitals are ready for your business. And they charge a fraction of what you would pay in the West.

Packaged trips arranged by the hospital themselves or travel agents include airport pickups, hotel reservations, doctor consultations, personalized nursing service and a choice of menus. If you're up for a vacation after your surgery: you have a choice between convalescing at a beach resort, an ancient fort, a pristine forest eco-lodge and many more.





Here are a few reasons why being a medical tourist works:

Core reasons:
• Clinical outcomes on par with the world’s best centres.
• Internationally qualified and experienced doctors.
• Competitive costs - 1/5th to 1/10th of costs in the west.
• Quality of service.
• Little or No waiting time.
• Patient-centric care.
• An exotic vacation experience.

Please note that the costs mentioned here are meant to a rough guide. They have been collected from a variety of accounts of medical tourists. HealthAbroad.net takes no responsibility for the accuracy of these prices. Since costs quoted for the same treatment differ across various sources, each row represents data collected from one source only.

Treatment	USA	UK	Other Western Europe	India	Thailand	Other
Heart Bypass	£ 13,250	£15,000 onwards	£13,000 onwards (France)	£4,300
Heart Bypass	$15,000 - 40,000			$3000-15000	$3000 – 15,000
Heart Bypass	$90,000					$6315 (Malaysia) $10,417 (Singapore)
Quintuple heart-bypass	$100,000				$12,000
Hip replacement	£15,900	£10,000	£7,600 (France)	£3,000
Hip replacement				$8300 (including RT air fare from US-India)
Hip resurfacing	$30,000			$6000
Knee replacement	$25,000				$5000
In-vitro fertilization	$20,000	$15,000		$2,500
Bone-marrow transplant	$480,000			$36,000
Arthroscopic knee surgery					$2500
Cataract Surgery	£2100	£2900	£1000	$500/eye	$500/eye
Root canal surgery				$80 – 220 / tooth	$80 – 220 / tooth
Tummy tuck	$20,000				$7000 for both tummy-tuck and breast reduction	$9000 for facelift, ear pinning, ear lobe reduction, eyelid surgery, a tummy tuck and liposuction (South Africa)
Lasik eye surgery	$3700			$730
Herniated disk repair						$4570 (Cuba)
Fetal stem cell treatment for neurological restoration						$11,000 (Cuba)
Face lift	$6000-$12000					$3000-$4000 (Costa Rica)
Dental Implants	$1500-$1700 ($500-$700 for a porcelain crown)					$750-850 ($250-$350 for a porcelain crown) (Costa Rica)
Face lift	$20,000					$1250 (South Africa)
LASIK eye surgery	$5000	$5000				$1500 (Hungary and Lithuania)

Rough rule of thumb: cost of medical procedures in India and Thailand is 1/4th to 1/5th of cost in USA.