Mapping the market for medical travel

Study by McKinsey & Company

Source: The McKinsey Quarterly

The idea of traveling around the world for medical treatment has captured much attention and imagination. As the debate on health care reform heats up in the United States, few weeks go by without a story about an under- or uninsured patient going to India or Thailand for heart surgery or hip replacement . Although medical travelers have many motives, lower-cost procedures and discretionary cosmetic operations represent only small segments. Most of these people seek the world’s most advanced technology, better quality, or quicker access to medical care.

To create a rigorous and credible fact base about the nascent medical-travel market, McKinsey studied more than 20 medical-travel destinations; analyzed primary data on the number, type, and origin of medical travelers; and conducted interviews with providers, patients, and intermediaries in 20 countries.

The examination of the motives and behavior of medical travelers reveals that this market has great potential for growth, though current volumes are modest. The benefits to providers attracting international patients are big - in addition to filling beds and increasing revenues per bed, such patients may boost an institution’s domestic prestige. But fewer than half of the international inpatients at the providers visited were true medical travelers. Furthermore, several global forces and a number of important structural barriers may prevent or inhibit the market’s growth.

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