Medical tourism in South Korea
South Korea has been a popular medical tourism destination since 2009, attracting more than 2.7 million foreign patients by 2019. People come for affordable costs, high-quality care, shorter waiting times, and travel packages that combine treatment with sightseeing and relaxation.
Korean doctors excel in many areas, including organ transplants, cancer treatment, heart care, spine disorders, infertility, traditional Korean medicine, and cosmetic surgery. In liver transplants, Korea had the world’s largest number of living-donor cases in 2014, with a transplant success rate of about 92% (compared with 85% in the United States). The overall 5-year survival rate for organ transplants in Korea is around 86.7%, and the 11-year survival is about 80.4%.
Korean health statistics show strong cancer outcomes as well. The 5-year survival rate for all cancers rose from 43% in the 1990s to about 70.4% in 2017, higher than the OECD average. Thyroid cancer, in particular, has a 5-year survival rate of 100%, and prostate cancer about 93.3%. Korea is known for advanced breast cancer care, along with treatments for bronchial and lung cancers. In 2019, 11,226 international patients came to Korea for cancer treatment, a 45% rise from the previous year. The largest groups came from Russia, Kazakhstan, China, the United States, and Mongolia.
Cosmetic surgery is a major attraction. Korea has the highest per capita rate of cosmetic procedures in the world, and it ranked fifth in the number of practicing plastic surgeons in a 2022 survey. Foreign patients seeking cosmetic treatment rose to about 464,452 in 2018. Many visitors also pursue reconstructive surgery after injuries or burns, and there have been notable charity efforts, such as a 2013 case where a hospital helped a Mongolian boy get a 3D-printed artificial nose.
In Korea, national health checks are also offered and often free through the National Health Insurance Service. These checks can include MRI, CT, and colonoscopy, which are less common in other countries. Foreign patients seeking health checkups increased from about 9,900 in 2010 to over 41,000 in 2016.
The Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI) reports rapid growth in medical tourism: foreign inpatients and outpatients rose from 60,201 people in 2009 to 2,760,553 in 2019. In 2019 alone, about 497,000 foreign patients visited Korea for treatment. The biggest source of patients was China, followed by Japan, the United States, Russia, and Mongolia. Internal medicine had the largest growth among services, followed by plastic surgery, dermatology, medical checkups, OB/GYN, and orthopedic surgery.
To promote medical tourism, KHIDI launched the Korean medical brand “Medical Korea” in 2009 with the slogan “Smart Care.” It supports conferences, exhibitions, medical travel programs, and public health services. Private platforms also help international patients find certified hospitals. For example, medicaltravelkorea.com links users to hospitals officially certified by Korea’s Ministry of Health and Welfare. As of March 2025, about 9.2% of international medical tourists used this platform.
Regulations have strengthened oversight of foreign-patient care. A 2016 act supports overseas expansion of healthcare, with penalties for unregistered brokers and provisions to protect patients, such as medical malpractice insurance for registered institutions and a 10% VAT refund for cosmetic procedures at eligible hospitals. The Korean Accreditation Program for Hospitals serving Foreign Patients (KAHF) assesses hospitals on 35 standards and 149 items. Since 2016, registered hospitals can offer the VAT refund, and enforcement against illegal brokers has been tightened. KHIDI, KTO, and local governments operate medical tourism support centers, including one at Incheon International Airport (opened 2018) and another at Seoul’s Tourism Plaza (opened 2021) to assist foreign patients.
Korea continues to be recognized for its contributions to health care and medical tourism.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 07:59 (CET).