As patients and businesses realize they can save up to 80 percent on pricey medical procedures, the medical travel industry is booming.

A Cut Below: Americans Look Abroad for Health Care | By MARK REPASKY | Aug. 29, 2006

As U.S. Health Care Costs Rise, More Americans Head Abroad for Treatment
...
More and more Americans are looking across the border and overseas to get their medicine. Jeff Schult, author of "Beauty from Afar," a guide to medical tourism, estimates that more than 100,000 Americans a year travel beyond the boarder for cosmetic procedures alone.

In 2005, for example, Bumrungrad Hospital in Thailand served more than 50,000 American patients, a 30 percent increase from the previous year. Thailand is just one of the countries where foreign patients have flocked. India, Brazil, Costa Rica and Mexico all market themselves as medical destinations, according to Schult.
...
Traveling abroad for medical procedures isn't new. For years, people have voyaged to exotic locals for aesthetic procedures -- a little nip and tuck between some rest and relaxation. But now the number of Americans leaving the country for medically necessary procedures has taken off too.

"The medical tourism model has really been turned around as the health care crisis looms larger and larger," said Dr. Matt Fontana, the chief medical officer for GlobalChoice Healthcare, a medical tourism booking company in Albuquerque, N.M. "People are saying, 'I'll pick the procedure and then I'll pick the destination.'"

As patients and businesses realize they can save up to 80 percent on pricey medical procedures, the medical travel industry is booming. ...