medical tourism does exist, India has places solely for westerners for this, dental issues, probably many countries provide it too.
this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2025
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Yes, but the best deals are likely in Eastern Europe. Also, if you do this, you will need to pay cash. However, it might be cheaper/easier than in the USA.
Medical tourism is a real thing. Whether you will pay less than you would in the US will depend on the country you go to and the procedure. Without insurance you are still likely to pay a lot of money at a private clinic. You also have to factor in whether you will need follow-up appointments and plan for complications because those costs plus the costs of multiple overseas trips and living accommodations will add up.
Yes-ish and no. No, you won't be insured by the european health insurances as a traveller. Yes, you could come over, get treated and maybe pay less than in the US.
Step 1: Go to Europe.
That's it. There is no step 2. I'm not going back.
Well, you know, Europe can't just take every refugee from an underdeveloped country that just wants to migrate for economic reasons. There needs to be some border control for these people, otherwise it won't be sustainable.
Nah, I'm kidding, it's all racism, if you're an American it's probably fine.
Well, I'm kinda kidding there, too, it's still a ton of work and paperwork to get a proper visa that allows work and permanent residency, but it IS much, much easier if you're a relatively affluent American.
Yes. Europeans themselves also travel to other European countries for cheaper healthcare. To the point where there is an actual medical tourism industry.
For example, there's a town of 35k people in Hungary that has over 300 dental clinics, because it's close to the Austrian border and is about half the cost or less.
Pretty sure Canada and Mexico are closer than Yurop and should allow you to get cheaper healthcare
Yes but
Full healthcare coverage is typically limited to fiscal resident, so you'll have to pay out of pocket. That said to my understanding the US price are so absurd, that we're like 10 times cheaper than you before insurance like a GP visit costing let's say 30 EUR, while in the US you'd pay 300 US$ (Giving a doctor seeing 6 patient per hour revenue in the 1800 US$ per hour that's just ridiculous, even when deducing taxes/rent/insurance and more). This is also why medical tourism is a thing.
That said, a big limit, is do you want to be away from your loved ones, in a country you don't speak the language post surgery ?
That $300/visit doesn’t go to the dr before it passes through several layers of bureaucracy, each of which skims their fee.
Not to say that doctors aren’t well compensated. They are.
Don't forget staff payroll has to come or if that too
This has always made me wonder, why aren't US insurance companies getting in on this. It would be cheaper for them to buy the plane tickets & fly their patients to another country.
Because instead they just outright deny the claim and pay nothing. It also works against them if people start to realize they can get cheaper care elsewhere.
It’s cheaper still to just not cover it, and raise premiums.
go to Europe just for cheaper healthcare?
There is no "Europe".
Regarding healthcare, each country has different laws. Even though their systems are mostly somewhat similar, there are huge differences in costs and performances. Your conditions for entry are determined by the laws, of course (for example, you cannot stay a US citizen), regardless if you are looking for a state funded or a privately funded system.
If you are looking for the strongest one of the state funded systems (so you can leech the most out of it), it is probably Norway.
A lot of places don't give free healthcare to non residents. Such as the UK. But it can still work out cheaper. I heard a story of an American couple who were over with no health insurance and ended up having to stay a few days in hospital. They were super panicky and were discussing remortgaging their house. Until they were given the £200~ bill.
£200~ bill.
For a stay? Under which king was that?
About 3-6000 in today's Germany (still doesn't take your house).
IIRC it is calculated by the ward's operating cost for your time in hospital, then divided by the number of patients. So if it costs £3000 to operate a ward for two days and there were ten patients there, then it's £300.
So what you're saying is that if I get injured, I had best take a few down with me so we can all be in together and split the costs?
Yes.