The study focuses on the emergence and development of medical tourism at the global and country levels. Article provides a definition of a medical tourism, reveals the stages of its formation – from the origin at ancient cultures to modern high technologies of biomedicine. The country ranking results held on the basis of an integrated index, featuring the assessment of the level of equipment at the medical infrastructure, the maintenance of hospitals, the availability of qualified specialists is discussed. The best practices of medical tourism are analyzed. It is shown that due to lower prices and higher service quality, the geographic vector of those wishing to receive treatment abroad is shifting to Asian countries. The need to strengthen the attention of government agencies to the development of medical tourism in the public and private health sectors is noted.