When Wayne Steinard visited his doctor earlier this year he faced two options: either undergo open heart surgery in the US for 100,000 dollars or have it done in India for 6,700 dollars.

"I chose India," the 59-year-old uninsured building contractor from Florida told AFP, reflecting a growing trend among middle-class Americans who are heading overseas for complex medical treatment in answer to soaring medical costs at home.

Though Steinard was not particularly keen on going abroad for his urgently needed triple bypass, he said it was either that or going bankrupt.

"I just couldn't afford to have it done here (in the US)," he said. "And now that it's over and done with, I would do it again without reservation."

Helping accelerate this outsourcing trend are US corporations and insurance companies that are offering employees incentives to undergo invasive surgeries in first-class medical facilities in India, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia at third-world prices.

"This is the only magic bullet for an employer who wants to save 80 percent on health care costs," Jonathan Edelheit, vice president of United Group Programs, a company that administers health insurance plans, told AFP.

He said since his firm began marketing the idea a year ago, some 40 companies have signed up and 100 others are mulling it.

The advantage to employees, Edelheit said, is that the surgery is usually performed by US-trained physicians in credentialed hospitals that often surpass their American counterparts in terms of quality of care.

"The hospitals we work with blow away our US-based hospitals," he said. "It's like going to a five-star hotel abroad or staying at a one-star motel in the US."

Employees who opt for overseas care also get to take along a family member and get a recuperative stay at a hotel -- all paid by their company.

"The employee basically can get a vacation in a foreign country and have surgery done at the same time," Edelheit said.

He said his firm in the last six months has sent six people to get treatment overseas.

Though there are no firm statistics on the magnitude of this trend, health care professionals and hospitals abroad say they are seeing a steady increase in the number of American patients they treat.

Bangkok's Bumrungrad International Hospital, for example, reported that it had treated 55,000 Americans this past year, a 30 percent increase from the previous year. It said 85 percent of them underwent non-cosmetic surgery.

Health care professionals say that encouraging this outsourcing is also the fact that more and more Americans are unable to afford insurance.

According to the US Census Bureau, nearly 47 million Americans were uninsured in 2005. Health experts say that of those 47 million, some 15 million were people with income who could not afford the US health care system.

"As long as health care is unaffordable in the United States and getting more so, and as long as there is this dramatic price differential with hospitals abroad, you will see this trend grow," Doctor Mark Smith, president and chief executive officer of the California HealthCare Foundation, told AFP.

"If the choice for someone who needs surgery is having it done close to a home you have to sell or a plane ride, I think more and more people will take that plane ride," he added.