Ho Chi Minh City Plans Clearer Prices and Better Support to Attract Medical Tourists

Ho Chi Minh City wants to attract more overseas patients by addressing the practical problems of treatment abroad: unclear bills, language barriers and the difficulty of arranging care from another country.

The city’s health authorities have proposed clearer pricing for foreign patients at public hospitals, closer links with international insurers and a multilingual patient support centre operating 24 hours a day. The centre would help with appointments, cost estimates, interpretation and follow-up care, according to a Vietnam News Agency report published by VietNamNet.

Tang Chi Thuong, director of the city’s Department of Health, also called for investment in hospitals and specialties with established expertise. His proposals include English-language medical records and invoices, along with easier visa arrangements for patients and their companions.

The report describes proposals, not services already available across the city’s hospitals. It gives no timetable for the support centre’s launch.

For someone arranging treatment overseas, that gap matters. A planned interpretation service offers little help until a patient can book it and know what it costs.

An existing market, but an unclear count

Ho Chi Minh City accounts for about 40% of Vietnam’s international medical tourists, according to VNA’s reporting on the country’s draft medical tourism programme.

The national totals require caution. Officials estimate that roughly 300,000 international visitors use medical services in Vietnam each year, spending between $1 billion and $2 billion. That figure includes accommodation, transport, food and other expenses. It isn’t a measure of hospital revenue.

The health ministry also acknowledges that the statistics combine foreign residents receiving healthcare in Vietnam with visitors travelling specifically for treatment.

An expatriate attending a routine appointment and a patient flying in for surgery represent different sources of demand. Counting them together makes it harder to measure how many people choose Vietnam specifically for medical care—and whether efforts to attract them are working.

Family ties already bring patients back

Some demand comes from people who know the country well.

Dr Kieu Quoc Thoai of Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy has described increasing international interest in Vietnamese dental care. Overseas Vietnamese returning from countries including the United States and Australia are among those seeking treatment, sometimes alongside family visits, according to VNA’s report on Vietnam’s national strategy.

The same report says major hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi have established international patient services and partnered with travel companies on packages covering airport transfers, treatment and accommodation.

These arrangements reduce the number of bookings a patient must manage. They also raise questions that a package description should answer: Does the price include follow-up appointments? What happens if the hospital stay runs longer than expected? Who handles a concern after the patient returns home?

A transfer from the airport is only one part of the journey.

Vietnam’s wider ambitions

The city’s proposals form part of a national effort to develop medical tourism.

Vietnam’s health ministry is preparing a programme for 2026–2030 with reported targets of at least 20 hospitals meeting international quality standards and 30 standardised medical tourism packages. Plans also include a multilingual national information portal, according to VNA’s overview of the programme.

Dr Tran Cao Binh, director of the National Hospital of Odonto-Stomatology, has argued that dentistry could lead this effort if quality and safety remain central.

For patients, the phrase “international quality standards” needs an explanation. Which standards apply? Which hospitals meet them? Where can a patient check? A national portal would be more useful if it answered those questions alongside information about treatments and destinations.

What changes for local patients?

The expansion also raises a question for Ho Chi Minh City’s residents: will investment in international services improve their care, or put more pressure on appointments and staff?

The national draft includes an aim to improve access to high-quality services for Vietnamese people. Assessing that promise will require attention to local access as well as foreign patient numbers.

For overseas patients, the next developments to watch are concrete: which hospitals participate, when support services begin and whether prices and treatment terms are published.

Before booking a flight, a patient needs to know who will treat them, what the bill covers and who will answer the phone after they go home.