As is by now common knowledge, medical tourism is driven by high health care costs in the United States and to a lesser extent in western Europe and Canada, as well as sometimes long wait times in countries where costs may be somewhat lower but national healthcare plans impose longer wait times for elective and non-essential procedures. Concretely, cost savings can add up to as much as 70 percent less than in medical tourists´ home counties, and and quality of care (assuming you do your due diligences) are generally quite good, with many hospitals in destination countries are accredited by the the U.S.-based JCI (Joint Commission International) and many of the physicians performing these procedures trained in U.S. and European medical schools. Geographically, North Americans often gravitate toward medical tourism in the Western Hemisphere (especially Brazil, Colombia, Mexico), although those on the West Coast may also find it convenient to travel to Asia (such as India, Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand). Europeans, meanwhile, prefer Hungary (for dental tourism), with popular choices a bit farther afield including Turkey and Asia. And not a few medical tourists also opt to combine their procedures with vacations, as many of their destinations are quite appealing in their own right, and a number of facilities catering to medical tourists also have post-operative-recovery-oriented either on their premises or nearby.
With all that in mind, here are the five most sought-after types of procedures, and where they´re practiced...
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