Though health insurance has undergone a major operation thanks to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, much about the country's health care operation has remained the same. Even before PPACA, some benefits brokers and agents — in an effort to put more cost-saving choices in front of their clients — began to show them medical tourism options.

Medical tourism, which refers to a patient that travels out of state or abroad for health care or a patient that travels to the United States seeking the same, made serious dollars and sense in some cases.

In some countries, it's possible to spend less — sometimes much less — money paying for travel expenses and procedures out-of-pocket than paying deductibles and uncovered costs, or for uncovered procedures altogether. Also, patients could travel to take advantage of health care facilities that serve as centers of excellence for a certain procedure in hopes of increasing the odds of a positive outcome.