Medical tourism is the travel of people to other countries with the purpose of getting health care. Not only does health tourism give people an opportunity to get qualified medical treatment, it also lets them see new countries, see the sights and find out more about local traditions.

Health tourism is getting increasingly popular for a number of reasons, which include:

• health insurance in the home country doesn’t cover the treatment of certain diseases;
• the clinics in the home country don’t have necessary equipment or quality health care;
• the cost of medical services in another country is substantially lower than it is in the home country.

Lately Ukraine has been ranked very high on the list of top destinations for health tourism. Medical tourists come here from a variety of locations including Asia, the CIS countries, Germany, France, the UK and North America.

The demand for the following specialists has been the highest:

• dentists;
• ophthalmologists;
• surgeons.

For instance, the cost of high quality dental care services in Ukraine is 4 to 7 times cheaper than it is in many other countries. This is why thousands of medical tourists come to Ukraine every year to get dental treatment and oral health care services. Getting dental implants has been especially popular since in Europe and in the US this procedure costs around 2,000 euros and 3,000 dollars respectively, while in Ukraine its price varies between 500 and 800 dollars.

Plastic surgery is another popular branch of medical care. First, the actual operation is much cheaper in Ukraine, and second, you don’t need to pay the surgeon’s fee, which is the case in many other countries.

Spa towns and sanatoriums are yet another reason why medical tourists choose Ukraine as their health care destination. Truskavets, Morshyn, Khmelnyk, Berdiansk, sanatoriums and spas located in Carpathian Ruthenia are popular with both Ukrainians and guests from other countries, who are attracted by Ukraine’s mild climate and beautiful nature in combination with comfortable accommodation and board as well as quality and inexpensive health care services.

International students studying in Ukraine consider high quality medical services at affordable prices one of the biggest advantages of getting higher education in Ukraine.

Additionally, recent devaluation of the national currency has made the cost of medical services even cheaper for medical tourists.