| Verified against primary record | |
| Health-related travel exports (2019) | USD 1.2 billion, 0.5 per cent of total travel exports[1] |
|---|---|
| Health-related travel exports (2022) | USD 0.5 billion, 0.3 per cent of total travel exports[1] |
| Health-related travel balance (2022) | A deficit of USD 0.1 billion[1] |
| Mexico’s share of health-related travel imports (2022) | 36.5 per cent[1] |
| Scale of outbound travel | Millions of United States residents travel internationally for medical care each year[2] |
| Most common form among United States residents | Dental care[2] |
| Independently reported | |
| United States patients treated in South Korea (2025) | A record 173,000, up 70.4 per cent[4] |
| Earlier trade estimate (2013) | Exports USD 3.3 billion, imports USD 1.4 billion, a surplus of USD 1.8 billion[3] |
| Bands apply only to the rows beneath them. The two trade series must not be read as a trend. They rest on different definitions: the 2015 briefing counted a travelling patient’s food and lodging as well as medical care and expressly excluded overland travel from Canada and Mexico, and it states that the views expressed are the author’s rather than the Commission’s. The later series counts spending on medical treatment. No official United States count of foreign patients treated in the country was located. No typical cost range is given because no official source publishes prices paid by foreign patients. | |
Medical tourism in the United States is widely described as a large inbound industry, but the official trade statistics record it as the smallest category of personal travel, and one that now runs a small deficit. Health-related travel exports, meaning spending by foreign residents on medical treatment in the United States, were 1.2 billion dollars in 2019 and 0.5 billion in 2022, under one per cent of all United States travel exports in both years. In the other direction, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that millions of United States residents travel abroad for medical care annually, most commonly for dental work.
What the trade statistics record
The National Travel and Tourism Office publishes travel trade figures compiled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Health-related travel is defined there as spending by foreign residents for medical treatment in the United States, counted as travel exports, and spending by United States residents who travel abroad for medical purposes, counted as travel imports.[1]
On that basis, health-related travel exports were 1.2 billion dollars in 2019, 0.3 billion in 2020, 0.2 billion in 2021 and 0.5 billion in 2022, representing 0.5 per cent of total travel exports in 2019 and 0.3 per cent in 2022. In 2022 the category ran a deficit of 0.1 billion dollars, meaning United States residents spent slightly more on medical travel abroad than foreign residents spent on treatment in the United States. Mexico accounted for 36.5 per cent of United States health-related travel imports.[1]
The comparison with other travel categories is instructive. In 2022 education-related travel exported 38.0 billion dollars, 23.0 per cent of travel exports, with a surplus of 32.0 billion, while other personal travel exported 70.4 billion, 42.6 per cent, with a deficit of 26.1 billion. Health-related travel is by a wide margin the smallest of these categories, and its exports fell between 2019 and 2022.[1]
An earlier, larger official estimate
An executive briefing published by the United States International Trade Commission in August 2015 gave much larger figures for an earlier period: exports of 3.3 billion dollars in 2013, up from 1.6 billion in 2003, and imports of 1.4 billion in 2013, up from 168 million in 2003, producing a surplus of 1.8 billion dollars.[3]
These two series cannot be joined into a trend, and the difference between them is definitional rather than a collapse in the trade. The briefing measured a travelling patient’s purchases of food and lodging alongside medical care, a broader basket than treatment spending alone. It also noted that its air-travel data excluded overland travellers from Canada and Mexico, which matters considerably given that Mexico is the largest single origin of health-related travel imports in the later series. The briefing further states that the views expressed are the author’s and not those of the Commission or its Commissioners.[3]
The briefing also described the composition of the flows. Inbound patient arrivals in 2011 came mainly from the Caribbean at 44 per cent, Europe at 24 per cent and Central America at 10 per cent, and it noted that visa restrictions had pushed many patients from the Middle East towards Southeast Asia instead. Outbound destinations were South America at 26 per cent, the Caribbean at 19 per cent and Central America at 18 per cent, which the briefing suggested may partly reflect members of diaspora communities returning to their countries of origin for care.[3]
On why measured flows fall short of commercial estimates, the briefing identified visa restrictions, the general absence of insurance cover for treatment abroad, which confines the market to people paying out of pocket, and concerns about safety and liability. It put global medical travel at roughly 3 million patients a year and included among its sources a critique of a widely circulated market estimate.[3]
Reconciling people and money
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states in its travel health guidance that millions of United States residents travel internationally for medical care each year, citing surveillance data, and names Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean and several South American countries as the common destinations. It identifies dental care as the most common form of medical tourism among United States residents, alongside cosmetic surgery, cancer treatment, fertility treatment and organ transplantation.[2]
A statement of millions of travellers and a recorded import figure of well under a billion dollars are only consistent if typical spending per traveller is low. That is what the composition suggests: dental work, and short overland trips to Mexico, cost far less per patient than the complex surgery the phrase medical tourism tends to evoke. The two official sources are measuring different things, people in one case and recorded cross-border spending in the other, and neither validates the other.
Risks identified by the public health authority
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identifies infections as the most common complications of medical travel, including bloodborne infections such as hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV, bloodstream infections, donor-derived infections and surgical site infections. On antimicrobial resistance it notes that carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales and Candida auris appear more common in some destination countries.[2]
It records specific documented outbreaks: fungal meningitis in patients who received epidural anaesthesia in Mexico, carbapenem-resistant infections following invasive procedures in Mexico, and nontuberculous mycobacteria surgical site infections after cosmetic surgery in the Dominican Republic. Non-infectious complications named include blood clots, fat thromboembolism, contour abnormalities, wound dehiscence and death. It advises against flying for ten days after chest or abdominal surgery and recommends seven to ten days after facial, eyelid or nose procedures.[2]
On accreditation it is pointed: standards vary by country and may not match those in the United States, some facilities and clinicians abroad are not accredited at all, and some locations do not routinely track outcomes or protect medical records. It notes the recommendation to use internationally accredited facilities and clinicians certified in their specialties, while cautioning that accreditation does not guarantee a good outcome.[2]
Its pre-travel recommendations include consulting a domestic clinician well in advance, a travel medicine consultation four to six weeks before departure, keeping routine vaccinations current with particular attention to hepatitis B, planning for complications with both the domestic and overseas provider, checking whether the insurance plan covers care abroad and considering supplemental and medical evacuation cover, and requesting overseas medical records in English for follow-up clinicians.[2]
United States patients counted abroad
Some destination countries count United States patients directly. On figures the South Korean health ministry released in April 2026, patients from the United States rose 70.4 per cent to a record 173,000 in 2025, making up 8.6 per cent of the 2.01 million foreign patients Korea recorded that year, behind China, Japan and Taiwan.[4]
Limits of the evidence
No official United States count of foreign patients treated in the country was located, and none has been estimated here. The trade figures are balance of payments estimates, not patient counts, and the two official series quoted rest on incompatible definitions, which is stated rather than smoothed over. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statement that millions travel abroad annually is not accompanied on the page itself by a figure tied to a named study, so it is reproduced as the qualitative statement it is. The Korean figure counts activity in Korea, not United States outbound travel as a whole.
See also
- Medical tourism market size, and why commercial estimates exceed official trade figures
- Medical tourism and balance of payments statistics, the framework these dollar figures come from
- Dental tourism, identified as the most common form among United States residents
- Medical tourism in Mexico, the largest single origin of United States health-related travel imports
- Complication rates in medical tourism, including the outbreaks recorded here
- Diaspora medical travel, offered as a partial explanation of outbound destinations
References
- National Travel and Tourism Office, United States Department of Commerce. Travel Trade by Category. Compiled from Bureau of Economic Analysis data. Verified against primary record: the fact sheet was opened and the health-related travel export figures for 2019 to 2022 with their shares of total travel exports, the 2022 deficit, Mexico’s share of health-related travel imports, the definition of health-related travel, and the comparative figures for education-related and other personal travel were read directly. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Medical Tourism. CDC Yellow Book, 2026 edition; last reviewed and updated 23 April 2025. Verified against primary record: the page was opened and the statement that millions of United States residents travel internationally for medical care each year, the common destinations and procedures, the identification of dental care as the most common form, the infection and antimicrobial resistance risks, the three documented outbreaks, the non-infectious complications, the post-surgical flying intervals, the cautions on accreditation and the pre-travel recommendations were read directly. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
- Chambers, A. Trends in U.S. Health Travel Services Trade. Office of Industries, United States International Trade Commission, Executive Briefing on Trade, August 2015. Independently reported: the briefing was opened and the 2003 and 2013 export and import figures, the 2013 surplus, the definition including food and lodging, the inbound and outbound regional shares, the exclusion of overland travel from Canada and Mexico, the stated constraints on cross-border trade and the roughly 3 million global patient estimate were read. The briefing states that the views expressed are the author’s and not those of the Commission or its Commissioners, and it is placed in this band for that reason. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
- Korea JoongAng Daily. Number of foreign patients top 2 million for first time in 2025. Reporting figures released by the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare on 24 April 2026. Independently reported: the article was opened and the United States patient count, its percentage increase and its share of the Korean total were read. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
Sourcing note: two official United States trade series on health-related travel exist and disagree substantially. Both are reported here with their definitions and the reasons they are not comparable, rather than one being selected or the two being spliced into a trend. No patient count has been derived from the dollar figures and no dollar figure has been derived from the patient statements. Pre-travel guidance from the public health authority has been restated in the third person rather than quoted.