Care Abroad

Care AbroadCountries (53)

Where people fly for treatment, what each country sells, and who counts the arrivals.

Central America (2)

Costa Rica

República de Costa Rica, Republic of Costa Rica

The Central American destination that organised itself earliest.

Panama

República de Panamá, Republic of Panama

The smallest of the three Latin American clusters this site carries, and the one with the fewest surgeons.

Central Europe (4)

Croatia

Hrvatska, Republika Hrvatska

A border dental trade with a coastline attached. Croatian practices in Istria and around Rijeka are within a short drive of northern Italy, Slovenia and Austria, and they price and advertise for those markets; the…

Czechia

Czech Republic, Česko, Česká republika

Europe's second workshop for donor-egg treatment, and a border country whose clinics are the destination for more authorised cross-border patients than anywhere else in the EU.

3 published prices

Hungary

Magyarország

The oldest dental corridor in Europe, built on a border. Austrian patients crossed to Sopron for crowns and implants before Hungary joined the EU; Budapest practices now draw from further away and sell whole treatment…

Poland

Polska, Rzeczpospolita Polska

A dental and cosmetic destination whose first customers were its own emigrants.

1 published price

East Africa (1)

Kenya

Republic of Kenya, Jamhuri ya Kenya

A source market. Kenyans with money or with an employer scheme fly to India for cancer treatment, cardiac surgery, transplants and neurosurgery; Kenyans without either do not go.

East Asia (4)

China

中华人民共和国, People's Republic of China, PRC

Two flows at once. Chinese patients are among the largest groups of foreign patients recorded in South Korea and Japan; inside China, a designated zone at Boao Lecheng on Hainan is allowed to use medicines and devices…

Japan

日本, Nippon, Nihon

A country with a Medical Stay visa, a national programme to receive foreign patients, and no published count of how many arrive for treatment.

South Korea

Republic of Korea, 대한민국, Korea

The fastest-moving inbound flow in Asia, and one of the few a state counts on a published series.

Taiwan

中華民國, Republic of China, Chinese Taipei

A single-payer system with an international side bolted on. National Health Insurance covers residents, hospitals run international medical centres for everyone else, and the state has promoted the sector since the late…

Eastern Europe (1)

Romania

România

A two-way country. Romanian dental groups in Bucharest, Cluj and Timișoara sell implant and full-arch work to Romanians living in Italy, Spain, Germany and Britain, and to their neighbours; at the same time Romanians…

Mexico (1)

Mexico

Estados Unidos Mexicanos, United Mexican States

The country most US residents cross into for care, and the only destination on this site reachable on foot.

North Africa (3)

Egypt

جمهورية مصر العربية, Arab Republic of Egypt, Miṣr

The Arab world's largest country selling private care to visitors, mostly cosmetic, dental, hair and eye work, to buyers from the Gulf, Libya, Sudan and Europe.

Morocco

المملكة المغربية, Royaume du Maroc, Kingdom of Morocco

A francophone cosmetic and dental destination that sells to France, to the Moroccan diaspora in Europe and to Gulf visitors, from specialised private clinics in five cities.

Tunisia

الجمهورية التونسية, République tunisienne, Tunisian Republic

North Africa's largest inbound care trade, run out of about a hundred specialised private clinics and sold in French.

North America (2)

Canada

Dominion of Canada

One of the two largest source markets in the world, and the one whose patients leave for a date rather than a discount.

United States

USA, US, United States of America

The largest source market in the world and a major destination in the same breath.

Northern Europe (1)

Lithuania

Lietuva, Lietuvos Respublika

The smallest of the European dental and cosmetic corridors, and the one that grew on emigration.

Oceania (1)

Australia

Commonwealth of Australia

A country people leave for dental and cosmetic work and almost never arrive at for either.

South America (3)

Argentina

República Argentina, Argentine Republic

A regional cosmetic and dental destination with a deep specialist base and a currency that has moved faster than its price lists. Buenos Aires carries almost all of it.

Brazil

República Federativa do Brasil, Federative Republic of Brazil

The country that performs more cosmetic surgery than any other and exports very little of it.

Colombia

República de Colombia, Republic of Colombia

The South American country whose surgeons report the highest share of foreign patients anywhere in the ISAPS survey.

South Asia (3)

India

भारत, Republic of India, Bharat

The inbound flow an immigration desk counts. India issues a medical visa and an attendant visa, and the arrival is recorded by purpose, so the figure a reader gets is an arrivals count rather than a hospital's estimate…

Nepal

नेपाल, Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal

A source market with one dominant destination and a published reason for going that is not the one the field assumes.

Sri Lanka

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව, இலங்கை, Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka

A country with free public healthcare, strong population health for its income, and a short list of things it cannot do at home.

Southeast Asia (6)

Indonesia

Republik Indonesia, Republic of Indonesia

The largest source market in Southeast Asia, and the country whose departing patients built its neighbours' hospitals.

Malaysia

Federation of Malaysia

A destination built on one neighbour. Malaysia's healthcare-travel figures are published by a council inside the Ministry of Health, and the patients behind them are mostly Indonesian, mostly arriving through Penang and…

Philippines

Republic of the Philippines, Pilipinas

A country that exports clinicians and has never managed to import many patients.

Singapore

Republic of Singapore, 新加坡共和国

A city-state that counted its medical travellers, found the count did not survive inspection, and has not published a comparable one since.

Thailand

ราชอาณาจักรไทย, Kingdom of Thailand

The country that made the package price ordinary. A tier of large private hospitals in Bangkok sells fixed-price operations to foreign patients, publishes what they cost, and has done so for long enough that the format…

Vietnam

Việt Nam, Socialist Republic of Vietnam

A country that sends more money out for treatment than it takes in, and that is building a dental and cosmetic trade in Ho Chi Minh City on the difference.

Southern Africa (1)

South Africa

Republic of South Africa, RSA, Suid-Afrika

Sub-Saharan Africa's referral hospital and Europe's rand-priced cosmetic destination at the same time.

Southern Europe (5)

Cyprus

Κύπρος, Kıbrıs, Republic of Cyprus

An EU island whose fertility clinics work under a single national statute and a council that licenses them.

1 jurisdictions read

Greece

Ελλάδα, Hellenic Republic, Ελληνική Δημοκρατία

A fertility destination with a court in the middle of it. Greek clinics run donor-egg and IVF programmes for patients from Britain, Italy, Germany and the Balkans; Greek surrogacy is distinctive in Europe because a…

Northern Cyprus

Kuzey Kıbrıs, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, KKTC

A fertility destination whose whole proposition is a legal line on a small island.

1 jurisdictions read

Portugal

Portuguesa, República Portuguesa

A country whose fertility market was rewritten by its own Constitutional Court.

1 jurisdictions read

Spain

España, Reino de España

The largest fertility destination in Europe, measured by its own national registry rather than by anyone's market estimate.

The Caribbean (2)

Cuba

República de Cuba, Republic of Cuba

The one destination in this directory where the seller is the state.

Dominican Republic

República Dominicana, DR

A Caribbean cosmetic surgery destination, two to four hours from the US east coast, selling body contouring largely to women travelling from the United States.

The Gulf (2)

Saudi Arabia

المملكة العربية السعودية, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, KSA

A state that pays for its own citizens to be treated abroad through a committee route, and is at the same time rebuilding its hospital sector under a named national programme with the stated intention of keeping that…

United Arab Emirates

UAE, الإمارات العربية المتحدة, Emirates

A federation of seven emirates that buys care abroad for its own citizens and sells care to visitors at the same time.

West Africa (1)

Nigeria

Federal Republic of Nigeria, Naijíríyà

Africa's largest source market by reputation and the one where the size of the outflow is least settled.

West Asia (5)

Georgia

საქართველო, Sakartvelo

A small, almost entirely privatised health system on the edge of Europe, selling to patients from the Caucasus, the Russian-speaking world and the Gulf.

Iran

ایران, Islamic Republic of Iran, Persia

A large regional destination that operates outside the international payment system.

Israel

מדינת ישראל, State of Israel

A small inbound trade run largely inside public hospitals, regulated since 2019 by a statute that exists to stop foreign patients from displacing Israeli ones.

Jordan

المملكة الأردنية الهاشمية, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

The Arab world's long-standing destination for patients from its own region.

Türkiye

Turkey, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, Republic of Türkiye

The largest inbound trade in Europe, and the only one the state licenses as its own category.

3 published prices

Western Europe (5)

Belgium

België, Belgique, Belgien

The classic European cross-border case: a small country with spare hospital capacity, short waits and three land borders, which has been treating its neighbours' patients since long before the EU wrote a directive about…

Germany

Deutschland, Bundesrepublik Deutschland

An inbound destination for complex care and an outbound one for everything cheap.

Ireland

Republic of Ireland, Éire

A country that mostly sends patients out and takes very few in.

Switzerland

Schweiz, Suisse, Svizzera

The expensive end of the European market. Swiss private clinics and university hospitals sell complex care, screening and residential addiction treatment to foreign self-payers at Swiss prices, and Switzerland sends…

United Kingdom

UK, Britain, Great Britain and Northern Ireland

A net exporter of patients with a small, profitable import trade.

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