According to recent studies, medical tourism nets roughly $20 billion dollars a year to global markets – that number is expected to reach $100 billion in 2012. Why? Because more people are fed up with rising healthcare costs, less choices and options, and longer waits for surgery.

Want more numbers? Call it what you will – medical tourism, medical travel, medical care abroad, and international medical care – it all boils down to the same thing. Crossing borders for accessible and affordable medical care.

It’s estimated that approximately 72,000 people from around the world travel to the U.S. for medical care. However, nearly 265,000 medical travelers visited Jordan for medical care in fields such as cardiology, oncology, orthopedics, obesity, infertility and more in 2010. While India and Thailand continue to be among the most popular for medical tourism, India alone is expecting a 30% boom in incoming international medical travelers yearly. Why? Again, because of excellent, affordable and accessible medical care in multiple fields and surgical specialties. By 2015, South Korea will be ready to handle up to 300,000 incoming medical travelers while Singapore has increased facility access to absorb the more that 600,000 medical tourists arriving in their country every year, with an approximately 13% increase since 2000.

Medical travel has lost its stigma. It’s a viable solution to patients around the world without access to prompt and affordable care. Why  spend tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars on a surgical procedure at home when you can receive the same procedure, from a skilled and experienced professional for a tenth of that cost abroad.

Why not indeed? For more information about savings and accessibility for medical care abroad, visit PlacidWay.com.