Maldives
Most Maldivians who travel abroad for treatment choose India.
Not a facilitator’s claim about volume. The Maldives’ own central bank surveys returning travellers and asks where they went. India wins that survey outright, in more than one year it has been asked.
65 percent
of Maldivians travelling abroad specifically for medical treatment chose India in the Maldives Monetary Authority’s 2017 survey of returning travellers, the most recent round with a country breakdown, ahead of every other destination. An earlier round, in 2014, found a closely matching 61 percent
Maldives Monetary Authority, Maldivians Travelling Abroad survey, reported by Atoll Times and Maldives Independent Checked 2026-09-13.
A national central-bank survey of travellers, not a hospital-record count, and the two survey rounds we found are from 2014 and 2017. We could not find a more recent published round with a country breakdown.
A majority share tells you India is the default choice when a Maldivian family already has to travel. It does not tell you which hospital or which surgeon is right for one specific diagnosis, which is a separate question.
We arrange an independent specialist opinion that answers that, for a fee paid by you, and we take nothing from any hospital.
Medically reviewed
Reviewed by Dr Gunjan Patel, MBBS, registered with the Gujarat Medical Council (G-65059). Reviewed for accuracy only. This page is general information, not advice about your own case, and Dr Gunjan Patel does not diagnose, prescribe or treat.
A small number, stated plainly
The Maldives is not one of India's largest source countries, and does not need to be.
roughly 10,971
medical-purpose arrivals to India came from the Maldives in 2022, per Government of India Ministry of Tourism data, cross-checked against two independent citations of the same underlying table. This is a small absolute number against India’s largest source countries, which is the point: the Maldives does not rank among India’s biggest markets by volume, but most of its own outbound medical travellers choose India anyway
India Tourism Statistics 2023, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India Checked 2026-09-13.
Both facts are true at once. A small island nation will never produce the raw numbers a country many times its size does, and that has no bearing on whether the route is real or whether it is right for a specific patient. The share figure above is the more honest measure of how central India already is to Maldivian medical travel.
Where the referral actually comes from
A national insurance scheme, not an informal pattern.
Aasandha, the Maldives’ national health insurance scheme, funds treatment abroad through a panel of empanelled hospitals in India and Sri Lanka when the care a patient needs is not available domestically
Aasandha Company Private Limited, official website, Overseas Treatment page Checked 2026-09-13.
India is one of two countries on that panel, not the only one, and the scheme decides funding and eligibility, not which specific hospital or surgeon suits a given diagnosis. That second question is left open on purpose, for a doctor to answer, not a funding scheme.
roughly 200
Maldivians needed treatment abroad each year, mainly for cancer and heart disease, according to Aasandha figures reported in Maldivian press during the COVID-19 travel disruption in mid-2020, the most recent published figure found
Raajje.mv, reporting Aasandha figures, 30 June 2020 Checked 2026-09-13.
A single Maldivian outlet reporting a scheme figure, not a primary Aasandha publication we could independently confirm, and reported during an unusual COVID-era travel period.
That specific figure carries less weight than the scheme’s existence does. Aasandha itself, and its India panel, are confirmed directly by Aasandha’s own site. The roughly two hundred a year comes from a single press report from an unusual COVID-era period, not a primary Aasandha publication, which is why it is marked differently above. Set against a population as small as the Maldives’, even a figure this uncertain still points to a steady flow of patients, not a handful of exceptional cases.
The practical route
No visa required at all, within limits.
Maldivian nationals are exempted from needing any visa, including for medical treatment, for a stay of up to ninety days in India, provided they carry a valid passport, relevant medical documents and evidence of sufficient funds
High Commission of India in the Maldives, official visa guidelines and medical-treatment advisory Checked 2026-09-13.
The same wording is repeated identically across the High Commission of India and the Maldives Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but we could not directly load either page ourselves, only reconstruct the identical text both publish. Confirm current terms before travelling.
That is a real, meaningfully easier starting point than most of the corridors we cover. It is also easy to assume it covers more than it does. Read the actual terms before you book, since the exemption has conditions attached, not a blanket pass.
Who pays for the advice you get
A well travelled route still attracts businesses paid to say yes.
Wherever real numbers of patients travel a route, companies form to arrange the trip. Some are paid by the hospital that receives the patient, not by the patient, which is worth knowing before you take advice from anyone.
Referral fees
can be paid to a medical travel facilitator by the hospital abroad, and a review of the research on facilitators, published in 2012, says patients may not know how much, or in what manner, a facilitator is paid
A review of earlier research, read as the authors’ manuscript. It says some facilitators are paid by their clients and others by facilities or physicians abroad, gives no proportion and no rate, and says there is little evidence on whether such payments influence recommendations. We found no readable source that gives a commission percentage, so we do not print one. The book is dated 2012 and the university repository record 2013. A consultant’s account of price padding shown elsewhere on the site is hers, attributed to her, and not a rate we have verified. Commission is one model in this market, not the only one, and we never say every company works this way.
That does not make every such company dishonest. It does mean the recommendation you receive has a financial direction built into it, even when a national scheme sits in the background of your case.
We are paid by you, once, and we take nothing from any hospital afterwards. This is exactly how that works, and this is how it compares to the commission model above.
Questions
What Maldivian patients and families ask us.
I am already covered under Aasandha. Why would I need you as well?
Aasandha decides funding and the panel of eligible countries. It does not weigh which specific hospital or surgeon suits your diagnosis, and it is not built to give you a second, independent read on the treatment plan itself. That is what we add alongside it, not instead of it.
Does visa-free entry mean I do not need to plan anything in advance?
No. The exemption removes the visa application, not the preparation. You still need the right medical documentation and evidence of funds, and the specific terms can change, so confirm the current rule with the relevant authority before you book anything.
Is Sri Lanka cheaper than India?
We have not found reliable, current evidence either way, and cost comparisons between the two change by procedure and by hospital. We are not going to claim an India cost advantage we cannot support. Ask us about your specific case and we will tell you honestly what the real numbers look like.
Why would I pay you when the scheme already funds treatment?
Because funded and independently checked are different things. Aasandha is paid for by the Maldivian government and works from its own panel. We are paid by you specifically so our opinion has no reason to favour any hospital on that panel or off it.
Who looks after me once I am back in the Maldives?
A doctor there, agreed before you travel rather than found afterwards. This is why our involvement runs for ninety days after you return rather than ending at the airport. How the ninety days work.
Get an independent read alongside your scheme referral.
Thirty minutes, free. We will tell you plainly whether the plan in front of you is right, before either of us spends more time on it.