Health tourism is certainly a lively and vibrant industry in the world today, and there are many different ways of looking at its positive effects based on numbers. Looking at how much people can save, and how much it can help countries with struggling economies is one effective means of analyzing how it’s changing the world. However, with the case of Cuba, it’s a very different story.

It’s very difficult to get any exact figures about health tourism in Cuba, but there are estimates that suggest that there are millions of dollars that come to the country via travelers seeking health care. A large portion of this certainly comes from travelers originating in the US, but the Cuban authorities are reluctant to release the exact numbers, so the story goes, because that would reveal just how many people travel there without going through the proper legal channels.

For more than 20 years, it has been a very popular destination, because of efforts to reform the medical system. It’s a three-tiered system that offers different levels of health care, and at the bottom tier are the citizens of the country. At the second level are the government employees and others with special status, and at the very top are health tourists. People from other countries in the world regularly travel here for many different kinds of health care, from dental work to complex operations, because of its high level of care and relatively low cost.

However, for the residents of the US, much of this is still unobtainable through means that are above the table. Cuban-Americans can now travel there with certain restrictions, and there are others who can obtain special visas, such as artist visas, educations visas, and religious affiliations, but it still seems out of reach to anyone who is looking to add Cuba to their list of possible destinations.