Comparing Medical Tourism in India: China's “Differentiated Advantage” in Hospital Environment + Price

In the global medical tourism market, India has attracted a large number of international patients, especially tourists from Europe, America and the Middle East, by virtue of its “low-cost + specialties” (e.g., dentistry, cardiac surgery, alternative therapies). As an emerging medical tourism destination, China is a late starter, but is forming a differentiated competitive advantage in hospital environment and pricing system, gradually building up a complementary rather than direct competition with India's positioning. The following specific analysis from two major dimensions:

I、the hospital environment: China to “hardware + service + systematic ability” to build integrated barriers

One of the core attractions of India's medical tourism is its private hospitals (such as Apollo Hospitals, Fortis Hospitals) “cost-effective services”, but the advantages of these hospitals are more focused on specialized treatment (such as orthopedics, oncology), and the overall medical environment of ‘balance’ and “systemic”. However, the strengths of these hospitals are more focused on specialized care (e.g., orthopedics, oncology), and the overall “balance” and “systemicity” of the healthcare environment differs from that of China. China's advantages in the hospital environment are mainly reflected in the following three aspects:

1. Hardware facilities: leading in the popularity of high-end equipment and the speed of technology iteration

China's large public hospitals (especially tertiary care hospitals) and high-end private hospitals (e.g., United Family Hospitals (UFH) and Mediatheque) continue to invest heavily in hardware. Example:

- Diagnostic imaging: top hospitals in China have popularized high-end equipment such as 3.0T MRI, dual-source CT, PET-MR, etc., and some hospitals (e.g., Peking Union Medical College, Shanghai Ruijin) have shorter equipment renewal cycles than similar institutions in India; and

- Surgical robots: da Vinci surgical robots in China installed capacity of more than 300 units (2023 data), covering urology, cardiac surgery and other fields, the use of cost due to large-scale procurement is lower than India.

- Critical care: ICU bed density, life support systems (such as ECMO) configuration level and emergency response capability is significantly better than India (India's private hospitals ICU resources often due to demand surge shortage).

Although there are some private hospitals in India with advanced hardware, due to the uneven distribution of overall medical resources (private hospitals accounting for only 20% of the total number of hospitals in the country are responsible for 60% of the outpatient volume), grassroots and community hospitals are generally backward in terms of hardware conditions, which makes it difficult to guarantee the whole chain of medical tourism experience.

2. Service Process: Better Refinement and Localization Adaptability

China's medical tourism service optimization is more in line with the needs of Asian patients, especially in terms of language accessibility, cultural adaptability, and multidisciplinary collaboration (MDT):

- Language services: for major source countries (e.g. Russia, Southeast Asia, Middle East), high-end hospitals in China are generally equipped with small-language interpreters (e.g. Russian, Arabic), and some hospitals have cooperated with international insurance organizations to provide “direct payment services” to reduce the language barrier for patients.

- Cultural details: Dietary and religious practices (e.g., prayer space for Muslim patients, vegetarian meals for Indian patients) have been incorporated into hospital service standards, and some hospitals also provide Chinese medicine physical therapy (e.g., acupuncture, tuina) as an aid to attract patients who prefer traditional medicine.

- MDT model: Large hospitals in China, due to the high average daily volume of consultations (the average daily outpatient volume in tertiary hospitals often exceeds 10,000), have teams of doctors with more experience in multidisciplinary collaboration on complex cases. For example, a tumor patient in China can be quickly diagnosed by a combination of imaging, pathology, surgery, and chemotherapy, whereas a private hospital in India may be limited in its efficiency in interdisciplinary coordination despite its strong specialties.

3. Systematized capacity: full-cycle management from treatment to rehabilitation

China has an advantage in the whole chain of “treatment-rehabilitation-follow-up” services. Examples include

- Post-operative rehabilitation: public tertiary hospitals work closely with professional rehabilitation organizations (e.g., Taikang Rehabilitation Hospital) to provide customized rehabilitation programs; private hospitals (e.g., Shanghai Jiahui International Hospital) have introduced international rehabilitation standards to cover neurological and orthopaedic rehabilitation; and

- Chronic Disease Management: Relying on the country's large primary healthcare network (e.g. community health service centers), hospitals can provide chronic disease patients (e.g. diabetes, hypertension) with a “hospital-community-family” linkage management model, which reduces the cost of cross-country follow-up visits.

- Drug accessibility: China is the world's second largest drug producer, with high quality and supply stability of generic drugs (through the national procurement and generic consistency evaluation), and faster access to cancer-targeted drugs and drugs for rare diseases than India (which relies on generics but lags behind in the approval of some new drugs).

In contrast, India's medical tourism relies more on “single-specialty surprise treatment”, the long-term management of post-surgery, chronic disease tracking and other services are weaker, it is difficult to meet the full-cycle needs of high-end patients.

II、the price system: China's “reasonable pricing + health insurance coverage” to form a new benchmark of cost-effective

The core selling point of medical tourism in India is “low price”, for example:

- Heart bypass surgery: about 30,000-50,000 dollars in private hospitals in India (100,000-150,000 dollars in the U.S.).

- Dental implants: about $1,500-$2,500 for a single implant ($3,000-$5,000 in the U.S.); and

- Tumor chemotherapy: $2,000-4,000 per month ($8,000-15,000 in the U.S.).

However, China's price advantage is not “absolute low price”, but “high quality service + reasonable pricing” of the cost-effective balance, specific performance:

1. Basic medical costs: prices of core items are lower than those in developed countries, and partly close to those in India

The prices of medical services in Chinese public hospitals are strictly controlled by the government (based on the National Medical Service Price Item Standard), and the core operation and examination costs are significantly lower than those in Europe and the United States, and some items are comparable or even lower than those in India:

- Surgical costs: cardiac stent implantation (domestic stents) in the third-class hospitals about 30,000-50,000 yuan (Indian private hospitals about 30,000-40,000 U.S. dollars, according to the exchange rate of about 210,000-280,000 yuan); Knee replacement about 50,000-800,000 yuan (India about 20,000-30,000 U.S. dollars, about 142,000-21,000 yuan).

- Examination costs: head MRI about 800-1200 RMB (about 500-800 USD in private hospitals in India, about 3600-5800 RMB); painless gastroenteroscopy about 1500-2500 RMB (about 1000-1500 USD in India, about 7200-10800 RMB);.

2. Hidden costs: China's comprehensive cost of living is more manageable

The total cost of medical tourism needs to take into account hidden expenses such as transportation, accommodation and escort. China has more advantages in the following aspects:

- Transportation costs: airfares for Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern patients flying to China (e.g., about RMB 2,000-3,000 from Dubai to Shanghai) are lower than those flying to India (about RMB 1,500 from Dubai to Mumbai, but follow-up transportation costs are higher in popular Indian medical tourism cities such as Chennai and Hyderabad);; and

- Accommodation costs: 3-star hotels in China's first-tier cities (e.g., Beijing, Shanghai) average about RMB 500-800 per day, which is lower than the same level of hotels in India's Mumbai and Bangalore (about RMB 800-1200); and

- Convenience of accompanying: China allows family members to accompany patients to the hospital, and the hospital surrounding facilities (such as pharmacies, supermarkets) are perfect, the cost of accompanying (such as hiring a caregiver averaging 300-500 yuan per day) is lower than in India (part of the private hospitals caregiver averaging 500-800 yuan per day, and you need to pay an additional fee for the intermediary).

3. Health insurance and international insurance coverage: Reducing the actual burden on patients

China is accelerating the “medical tourism + insurance” model to improve payment convenience:

- Basic medical insurance: some provinces (e.g. Hainan, Guangdong) have included international medical departments in the pilot medical insurance program, and eligible patients can be reimbursed for part of their expenses (e.g. chronic disease outpatient clinics, routine checkups); commercial insurance: domestic insurers (e.g. Hainan, Guangdong) have included international medical departments in the pilot medical insurance program.

- Commercial insurance: domestic insurance companies (e.g. Ping An, TICC) launched “cross-border medical insurance”, covering high-end treatment in private hospitals; at the same time, China and many countries (e.g. Russia, the United Arab Emirates) signed a mutual recognition agreement on medical care, and part of the international insurance can be directly settled.

- Installment payments: High-end private hospitals (e.g., United Family) offer flexible installment payment plans to reduce the pressure on patients to make one-time payments.

Although India claims to have “low prices,” some private hospitals have hidden fees (e.g., extra tests, high-priced medications), and international insurance coverage is limited (most need to be paid in advance), so the actual total cost may be close to or even higher than China's “transparent pricing + insurance coverage” model. The actual total cost may be close to or even higher than China's “transparent pricing + insurance coverage” model.

III、Summary: China's differentiation is the “systemic competitiveness of an integrated healthcare ecosystem”

Unlike India's medical tourism model, which is centered on “specialties and low prices”, China's advantage lies in the comprehensive ecosystem of “high-quality hospital environment + reasonable pricing system + full-cycle service capability”. The specific performance is as follows:

- Hospital environment: advanced hardware and facilities, service processes to meet the needs of Asian patients, the whole chain of mature management system.

- Price system: the cost of core items is lower than that of developed countries, and some of them are close to that of India, but the hidden cost and comprehensive cost of living are more controllable.