Trips get planned around flights and hotels. The health part — which vaccines your destination calls for, what your insurance does abroad (usually nothing), and who you would call if you got sick in another country — gets skipped until it is urgent. Everything on this shelf is free to use before you go, and the one thing that costs money, care itself, comes with its real prices attached. And because a growing number of Americans now travel on purpose for care they cannot afford at home, this shelf also names the hospitals and clinics abroad that actually cater to them — prices published, not promised.
TRULY FREE
Pick your country and get the CDC's page for it: the vaccines and medicines recommended or required, current travel health notices, where malaria is present and which pills prevent it, and food, water, and bug-bite advice. Check it at least a month before you leave — some vaccines take weeks, or more than one dose, to protect you.
Verified Oct 28, 2026, on the CDC's own site.
Check your destination →TRULY FREE
Where to actually get travel vaccines and medicines before a trip: your own doctor or local health department, travel medicine clinics (through the International Society of Travel Medicine's directory), and the authorized clinics that are the only places allowed to give yellow fever vaccine.
Verified Oct 28, 2026, on the CDC's own site.
Find a clinic →TRULY FREE
A nonprofit directory of vetted, English-speaking doctors and clinics around the world. Join before you go, keep the directory for your destination, and if you get sick you call a doctor who has agreed to see IAMAT members. There is no insurance middleman — you pay the doctor directly, at a capped rate.
Verified Oct 28, 2026, on IAMAT's own site.
Open the IAMAT directory →TRULY FREE
The official, plain-language rundown of the three kinds of travel coverage — travel health insurance, medical evacuation insurance, and trip cancellation insurance — and how they differ. Read it before you buy anything: most U.S. health plans do not pay for care outside the United States, Medicare and Medicaid do not either, and most hospitals abroad require payment up front. The U.S. government does not pay medical bills for citizens abroad.
Verified Oct 28, 2026, on the State Department's own site.
Read the guide →Planned care in another country — dental work, surgery, IVF, a full executive check-up — is how a lot of Americans now handle a price they cannot pay at home. The four countries below are the established destinations, and every one of them lets U.S. citizens in without a visa: Mexico for up to 180 days, Costa Rica for up to 180 days, Panama for up to 180 days, and Thailand for up to 60 days (Thailand asks you to file a free online arrival card before you fly). Three rules before you book anything: get the full price in writing, verify any accreditation claim yourself (the JCI check at the bottom of this section), and line up a doctor at home who agrees to handle your follow-up before you leave — complications after the flight home are the part nobody puts in the brochure.
FREE CHECK, PAID CARE BEHIND IT
A matching service for planned care abroad: tell it what you need and medical coordinators line up clinics — including in Mexico, Costa Rica, Thailand, and Panama — with a treatment program and a cost estimate before you travel. Bookimed lists 1,700+ partner clinics in 30+ countries.
Verified Oct 28, 2026, on Bookimed's own site.
Get matched with clinics →FREE CHECK, PAID CARE BEHIND IT
Los Algodones, just across the Arizona border near Yuma, is called "Molar City" because hundreds of dental clinics there serve Americans who walk across. Sani Dental is one of the largest, and it publishes its prices: implants from $890, an implant crown at $720 against a $1,650 U.S. average, All-on-4 full-arch work from $8,110 against $25,000, veneers from $450 — Sani's own figures, on its own site. The treatment plan and consultation are free. Also in Cancún and Playa del Carmen.
Verified Oct 28, 2026, on Sani Dental Group's own site.
See Sani's published prices →FREE CHECK, PAID CARE BEHIND IT
Costa Rica's largest private hospital, JCI-accredited, with an International Patient Program built for North Americans: English-speaking coordinators who walk you from the first inquiry through follow-up after you are home. More than 80 specialties under one roof — surgery, cardiology, orthopedics, dentistry — and quote requests are taken on the hospital's own site.
Verified Oct 28, 2026, on the hospital's own site.
Visit Clínica Bíblica →FREE CHECK, PAID CARE BEHIND IT
The flagship of medical travel: the first hospital in Asia to earn JCI accreditation (2002), seeing over a million patients a year from some 190 countries, with a dedicated international patient center. Rare in this business, it publishes package prices on its own website — health-screening packages, cosmetic packages, and full treatment packages, each priced in baht with the inclusions spelled out. One example from its own price list: a complete IVF package at ฿299,000, about $8,900.
Verified Oct 28, 2026, on the hospital's own site.
See published package prices →FREE CHECK, PAID CARE BEHIND IT
The only hospital in Central America affiliated with Johns Hopkins Medicine International, and Panama's first JCI-accredited hospital. It runs an Expat Patient Services program — a department whose whole job is foreign patients — with bilingual coordinators and insurance coordination. A quiet bonus for price clarity: Panama runs on the U.S. dollar, so the quote you get is the price you pay, with no exchange-rate math.
Verified Oct 28, 2026, on the hospital's own site.
Visit Pacifica Salud →TRULY FREE
Joint Commission International is the international arm of the body that accredits U.S. hospitals, and its website keeps the official list of accredited organizations abroad. If a hospital or clinic claims JCI accreditation, find it on that list — if it is not there, walk away. One limit to know: JCI accredits the facility, not the individual doctor, so still ask who your surgeon is, where they trained, and how many of your procedure they do each year.
Verified Oct 28, 2026, on JCI's own site.
Search JCI-accredited hospitals →Carry prescriptions in their original packaging, bring enough for the whole trip plus a few extra days for delays, and take copies of your prescriptions. Check your destination's rules before you pack: some common U.S. prescriptions — ADHD medicines, sleeping pills, and medical marijuana among them — are restricted or banned in other countries and can be confiscated, or worse, at customs. The State Department's medicine and health page walks through it.
| First visit with an IAMAT doctor (private practice, member rate) | Up to $100 office / $150 hotel call / $170 nights & holidays — IAMAT |
| Medical evacuation by air ambulance to the U.S. | $20,000–$200,000 — U.S. Department of State |
| Travel vaccines and a travel-clinic consultation | You pay the clinic directly; many health plans do not fully cover travel vaccines |
| All-on-4 dental implants, per arch, in Los Algodones, Mexico | From $8,110 vs. a $25,000 U.S. average — Sani Dental Group's own published prices |
| Complete IVF package in Bangkok, Thailand | ฿299,000 (about $8,900) — Bumrungrad International Hospital's own published package price |
| Care abroad on Medicare or Medicaid | Not covered — neither program pays outside the United States |
The pattern: everything that helps you prepare is free. Everything that treats you is on you — which is exactly why the preparation is worth the hour it takes.