It’s cliché to start a piece of writing about India with some breathless observation of how big the country is. But when discussing its health system, size does matter – India is the seventh largest country in the world, with a geographical area of over 3,000,000km2, and, as of 2026, a population within striking distance of 1.5 billion people. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, its health system is decentralised, with individual states shouldering the responsibility for organising and delivering healthcare. Locals are entitled to free care from government-run facilities, and those on especially low incomes can access a scheme providing secondary and tertiary treatment at certain private hospitals. But the disparity between public and private is stark. Public hospitals are often starved of funding, and suffer from overcrowding, a poor standard of equipment and a lack of qualified staff. This is particularly true in rural areas, but even in more urban locations the quality of care can often be lower than foreign patients expect.

As of last year, there were approximately 44,000 private hospitals in India, nearly double the country’s approximately 26,000 public hospitals

Those who can afford insurance, however, tend to go private. India’s private healthcare system is of a significantly higher standard than that on offer at public facilities, with well-funded hospitals equipped with the latest medical technology, and staff trained to a much higher average level. As of last year there were approximately 44,000 private hospitals in India, nearly double the country’s approximately 26,000 public hospitals. Private healthcare provision comprises around 62% of India’s total healthcare network, so while the picture is not necessarily ideal for the average citizen, it is decidedly rosier for higher-net-worth individuals, expats, and other foreign patients. Despite the generally high quality of treatment, prices remain very affordable compared with Western countries, and India’s stock as a healthcare destination has risen consistently over the years.

International renown

A reliable indicator of the overall quality of a country’s healthcare system is to look at levels of accreditation by globally recognised bodies like Joint Commission International (JCI). As of 2026, India has 67 JCI-accredited healthcare organisations, including hospitals, research centres, and emergency response systems, an exclusive list considering how many hospitals there are throughout the country. 

India’s journey to international recognition has been a multi-decade one – the first institutions in the country to receive JCI accreditation were Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals in New Delhi and Fortis Hospital Limited in Mumbai, both of which received quality certification for their hospital programmes in 2005. More recently, earlier this year, Daya General Hospital in Thrissur and Medanta Lucknow (part of Global Health Ltd) in Lucknow both received accreditation for their hospital programmes.

In addition to JCI, India has its own accreditation body, the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH), part of the Quality Council of India. NABH occupies a fairly specific place in the medical accreditation ecosystem, as it is simultaneously local and international – its judgement criteria are based on direct contextual knowledge of the quirks and history of India’s healthcare system, but it is also recognised by the International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua), so its recommendations are officially in line with internationally agreed standards of care quality and patient safety.

India has 67 JCI-accredited healthcare organisations, including hospitals, research centres, and emergency response systems

Dual JCI and NABH accreditation, therefore, is widely seen as the gold standard. Organisations with approval from both bodies include Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Artemis Hospital, and Medanta – The Medicity in Gurgaon; Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital in Mumbai; BLK-Max Super Speciality Hospital in New Delhi; Aster Medcity in Kerala; Continental Hospital in Hyderabad; and Manipal Hospital in Bangalore. Between them, these institutions offer a broad variety of specialties, from neurosciences, oncology, and orthopaedics to cardiac surgery, neonatology, and bone marrow transplants.

Notably, in the 2025 edition of Newsweek and Statista’s annual round-up of the World’s Best Hospitals, three from India made the list: New Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Chandigarh’s Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, and Medanta – The Medicity.

Such international recognition has helped India to nurture a reputation for good-quality treatment, and it has become an increasingly popular spot for medical tourism, with this popularity likely to continue to rise over the next decade.

The medical tourism situation

According to a recent report from Future Market Insights (FMI), the value of India’s medical tourism market will reach approximately US$20.4 billion this year, and is projected to grow to $65.1 billion by 2036, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.3%. 

Analysis from the report suggests that while previously much of India’s medical tourism market comprised visitors from nearby countries seeking cross-border care, source markets are continuing to open up further afield, with Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa representing the biggest inbound medical travel spend in recent years – in fact, India is now the top medical tourism destination for Nigerian patients, beating both the UK and the US. Official government figures from India, meanwhile, state that in the first quarter of 2025, 4.1% of foreign tourists specifically came for medical treatment.

“International patients are increasingly viewing India as a planned treatment destination rather than a last-resort option driven only by cost considerations,” the FMI report commented. “Patients now place greater emphasis on predictable care pathways, coordinated hospital engagement before travel, and access to multi-specialty centres capable of managing complex procedures within defined treatment windows.”

Reflecting on this improving view of India, the past few years have seen several notable strategic partnerships with other countries. One major example was the 2025 announcement of an agreement between BAPIO Training Academy, The Medical Travel Company, and Marengo Asia Hospitals. Intended to bolster the healthcare pathway for those travelling between India and the UK, the agreement offers patients high-level consultations in the UK followed by rapid referral to accredited hospitals in India, with bespoke aftercare.

International patients are increasingly viewing India as a planned treatment destination rather than a last-resort option driven only by cost considerations

Another example, also in 2025, was the newly announced collaboration between the Association of Healthcare Providers India (AHPI) and the United Arab Emirates-based Mulk Med Healthcare Group, which saw the AHPI’s network of Indian hospitals integrated into Mulk Med’s virtual global hospital platform in order to facilitate smoother and more efficient journeys to India for patients in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and beyond. 

Government authorities have also made sure to tie India’s medical tourism ambitions to more general tourism promotion through the Heal in India initiative. Integrated into the long-running Incredible India tourism campaign, it has been designed to present the country as a complete healthcare package – what a 2025 report from KPMG in India called “a compelling blend of clinical excellence, cost-effective treatments, and holistic wellness experiences”. 

Part of the strategy has been to lean into the perceived strengths of different areas of India. In the Delhi National Capital Region, for example, the focus is on organ transplants and complex tertiary care, while the state of Kerala is more of a wellness destination, due to its careful preservation of centuries-old practices of holistic healing known as Ayurveda. This combination of more traditional, culturally specific wellness approaches and internationally recognised healthcare standards (along with hefty price reductions compared with Western countries) enables India to emphasise the things that make it unique as a country, while still offering enough familiarity to put foreigners’ minds at rest. And the results, both in terms of foreign tourist arrivals and spend, 
are impressive.

Sense and sensitivity

Another key feature that has helped to boost India’s stature as a healthcare destination is its reputation for culturally sensitive practices. Providers of high-level private healthcare are used to an extremely diverse mixture of international patients – the fact that India is itself an enormously diverse place doesn’t hurt – so a concerted effort is made to offer tailored services that accommodate the needs and expectations of different cultures. 

These needs can be religious, such as the requirement for specific prayer spaces, bespoke meal plans, and even avoiding certain types of surgery where possible. A hospital might also seek to provide familiar meals as a source of comfort for patients, with regular feedback sought so that the food is as authentic as possible. Gender-segregated spaces may also be offered to patients for whom this is a cultural requirement, and if the patient prefers to deal with medical staff of a particular gender, this will generally be accommodated.

On a more practical level, providers try to ensure that language barriers don’t pose a problem, with multilingual translation services available at the majority of well-performing hospitals, allowing patients to digest often complex medical advice in their own language. International patient coordinators will also frequently be 
on hand to help patients with paperwork and other potentially stressful processes. 

So – internationally accredited hospitals, a flourishing medical tourism sector, and a reputation for welcoming, empathetic cultural practices. A rosy picture? 

Well, not entirely.

Bills, bills, bills

Generally, medical costs are significantly less in India than other countries – for example, according to KPMG, knee replacement surgery that could cost between $14,000 and $16,000 in other popular medical tourism destinations like Thailand and Singapore (and upwards of $50,000 in the US) comes in at approximately $6,600 in India. The savings are real.

In the first quarter of 2025, 4.1%of foreign tourists specifically came for medical treatment

That being said, India’s private healthcare landscape is not perfect, and certain institutions have been known to indulge in overbilling, especially when it comes to insured patients, with costs inflated, patients encouraged to stay longer than they need to, and extra – often unnecessary – procedures bundled in. 

Part of the issue is a lack of regulatory consistency when it comes to pricing – a downside of the decentralisation that enables individual states to capitalise on their strengths. Insurers in the country have the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), a statutory body that monitors the industry and holds rogue elements to account. However, the private healthcare sector has no such body.

Critics have also pointed to the increased interest that international private equity firms have taken in the sector as a reason for inflated bills. Since the Indian government decided to allow 100% foreign direct investment (FDI) in the healthcare sector, it has become an attractive proposition for foreign investors, and as the sector has struggled to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, many such investors have been able to move in and make acquisitions on the cheap.

Like the decentralisation, the investment explosion of the past decade has been a double-edged sword. On the one hand, more investment has meant more capital for infrastructural improvements, the purchasing of equipment, and large-scale projects. On the other hand, some have suggested that the increased profit motive has led to rising treatment costs. This isn’t such an issue for foreign patients with adequate insurance coverage – though Indian citizens will often have to pay out-of-pocket – but for insurers, it can mean an unpleasant surprise when the time comes to foot the bill. That is, if the insurance coverage has been accepted in the first instance – which is not always the case, with some hospitals demanding cash upfront.

A land of contrasts

As with most countries lumped under the somewhat loaded classification ‘developing’ by the Western world, India is a paradox, existing in simultaneous states of hyper-modernity and ancient tradition, global and local, nurture and neglect. But patients’ positive experiences speak for themselves – and if insurers can successfully navigate a regulatory and pricing environment that can charitably be referred to as ‘inconsistent’, the outlook is broadly positive, especially when it comes to patient outcomes. Increased investment and modernisation have, for the most part, helped to raise standards of care, and while sustained collaboration between central government, individual states, and foreign investors is a tall order, should such cooperation and consolidation continue and improve, there are opportunities galore.