Posted on 12/24/2009 7:11:54 AM PST by STARWISE
Several years ago, I enjoyed an amazing vacation in Costa Rica.
Shortly after I arrived, I found myself reclining in a comfortable leather chair. I leaned back and relaxed, staring at the flawless blue sky and the steep, misty mountains surrounding San Jose.
Soft, soothing music played in the background. I was beginning to drift off when a young woman walked over. She placed her hand on my shoulder.
“Good afternoon, Jon. I hope you’re comfortable,” she said, in perfect English. “Can I adjust the chair for you? Would you like something to drink?”
“No, thank you. I’m just fine.” I told her.
A few moments later, Dr. Telma Rubinstein walked in and sat down beside me.
“We have a long day ahead, Jon. Are you ready to begin?” she asked.
I nodded – and with that, she flipped a switch on the light above my head and began to examine the inside of my mouth.
Seven hours later, after three specialists had completed 10 separate dental procedures, I was walked out the doors of Prisma Dental. My mouth was sore and numb, but I was ready to enjoy the rest of my “vacation.”
For the next ten days, I traveled in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. At the end of my trip, I returned to San Jose, where Dr. Rubinstein completed my dental work.
My trip to Central America is just one example of what has become known as “medical tourism.”
For a variety of reasons, people from around the world are traveling abroad to obtain dental, medical, and surgical treatment. In many cases, the cost savings are so substantial that the “tourism” aspect of the trip is an added bonus.
An article in India’s BusinessWorld Magazine states that “medical tourism” accounts for more than $40 billion a year in medical and travel expenses. A study performed by Deloitte Consulting suggests that more than three million Americans will travel for medical procedures in 2010. And these numbers are growing rapidly.
The top regional destination for medical tourists is Asia. Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and India attract well over a million medical travelers each year. But large numbers of people are also traveling to Central and South America.
They are able to enjoy high-quality, affordable healthcare. And at the same time they enjoy numerous options for tourism and convalescing in the tropical air and healing sunlight.
Why Would Someone Travel for Healthcare?
Over the last 20 years, the standard of healthcare has rapidly improved in a growing number of lesser developed countries, especially in private hospitals. In many cases, the doctors and specialists in these facilities were trained in the top medical and dental schools in the U.S.
These emerging countries boast a variety of modern hospitals and state-of-the-art outpatient facilities. Often, the technology is newer and even more advanced than the equipment used in facilities here.
The bottom line is that many lesser developed countries now offer world-class medical services. In fact, they often exceed the standards you would expect in the U.S. or Europe – but at a small fraction of the cost.
Medical tourism began primarily with elective and cosmetic procedures. Today, growing numbers are traveling for life-saving and medically necessary procedures, such as joint replacements, cataract surgery, bone marrow transplants, and even bypass surgery. Virtually any medical procedure can be safely obtained for pennies on the dollar in a foreign country.
A recent CNN article told the story of 61-year old, Sandra Giustina. Without insurance, she had no way to afford the heart surgery she needed to correct an abnormal heart rhythm.
The surgery would have cost $175,000 in the United States. Instead, she traveled to New Delhi, India. There she had the operation for less than $10,000. That included the cost of travel… and a brief vacation after her recovery.
And her experience was not unusual. According to the Medical Tourism Association, here are the approximate costs of several procedures:
Heart Bypass $150,000 in the U.S. $8,500 in India
Liver Transplant $315,000 in the U.S. $75,000 in Latin America
Dental Implant $2,500 in the U.S. $1,000 in Costa Rica
Face Lift $15,000 in the U.S. $4,000 in Singapore
Knee Replacement $40,000+ in the U.S. $10,650 in Mexico
Hip Replacement $50,000+ in the U.S. $8,000 in Philippines
Bone Marrow Transplant $250,000 in the U.S. $25,000 in India
When you consider the costs, it is easy to see why medical tourism is booming. But cost is not the only reason why people are traveling for healthcare.
Surging demand in the developed world is exposing the flaws in our system. Under the socialized healthcare plans in the in the U.K and Canada, for example, some patients are required to wait years for treatment they need today.
In the U.S., the wait times are not as long, but the medical system has become a massive paper-pushing bureaucracy. It is plagued by fraud, inefficiency and waste. And the costs of healthcare have risen to the point of being ridiculous. Those who are uninsured have very few choices, within the current system.
In fact, before the financial and housing crisis, the number one cause of bankruptcy in the United States is due to medical expenses. This is not surprising when you consider that 45 million Americans have no health insurance coverage.
What about the Service and Standard of Care?
Doctors, dentists, and hospitals that cater to medical travelers actually have to meet a higher standard of service than those in your home country. These facilities and practitioners have to compete in the free market for cash-paying customers.
They also get much of their business from word-of-mouth referrals. Unless their patients receive a high-quality experience, they are unlikely to spread the word.
In some cases, options exist for full-service travel arrangements, private chefs and adjoining suites where family members can stay close to their loved ones.
An appointment with a specialist, diagnostic testing and follow-up can often be completed within hours. In the U.S., that would usually require several appointments and hours upon hours in waiting rooms.
Why I went to Costa Rica to have my teeth fixed…
One of the fastest-growing areas of medical tourism is dentistry. That is because most people don’t have comprehensive dental coverage.
In my case, most of the work was necessary. I had a broken tooth. I needed a root canal and an implant. And I needed to have a few fillings replaced. On top of that, I wanted to fix two gaps in my smile.
When I priced all this work here in the states, the total came to more than $18,000. And none of it was covered by insurance.
Based on my research, I knew there were a number of first-class dental practices in Costa Rica. It is a quick flight to get down there. And the cost of dental care is very low there, compared to the U.S.
I chose a practice called, Prisma Dental. The facility is bright, clean and modern. It also happens to be the friendliest and most accommodating dental practice I have ever visited. More importantly, the dental work that they performed was better than any I have received in the past. (And, no, I did not - and will not - receive any discount or commission for this recommendation.)
By getting the work done in Costa Rica, I received as good or better results than I could have expected here in the states. And it cost me less than one-third of what I was quoted here. My entire bill for the trip, including travel and lodging, was around $6,000.
That amounts to a savings of more than $12,000 – and a free vacation in Central America.
Rest @ link
~~PING!
Plus the women are friendly, sweet and beautiful !!
If I were the president of a small Caribbean Island, I’d have a team investigating and wooing potential doctors to start a medical tourism clinic free of US government intervention. This would be a great way to pull in a bunch of rich people to escape the tyranny of a government run health system. Think of all the Europeans, Canadians and now US wealthy citizens you could get.
It will not be long before the cruse industry picks up on this and you will sail at sea and have medical procedures completed by a doc from outside the united states. That you probably paid to have trained in an American school.
Just wondering what evil Nanzi and Harry
have done to preclude this.
It is already going on in the Bahamas. With the passage of the health care bill these places will take off.
http://www.medicaltourismcity.com/forum/topics/bahamas-shows-medical-tourism
I would be careful though about getting procedures done on credit.
http://www.firstshowing.net/2009/12/23/watch-this-jude-law-stars-in-the-official-repo-men-trailer/
FYI, my dentist told me his insurance company would pay for any procedure in Mexico. He was down there, considering opening an office there and asked about his own medical insurance before leaving. Needless to say, he is planning on opening an office in southern Mexico.
Simple. Taxing the lifesblood out of most regular folk makes it so they never have to worry about rubbing elbows with the commoners when THEY are having their medical vacations.
Cost savings or not, this is not something I could afford to participate in even now, much less when the spectres of Obamacare and Crap and Tax hit.
I need a root canal procedure and my dentist wants a little over a thou. for it. The next step will cost me 7 thou. This guy makes almost a million dollars a year. I looked him up in the internet.
Many Alaskans I know use the winter months to take “medical vacations”. Dental care is the worst here in Alaska, its almost impossible to just get a simple fast tooth extraction for less than $500, many will not accept walk ins and you must make an appointment a week or two in advance.
Gee, what will happen to Obama and Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi’s dream, if we see the wealthy bypass their utopian socialized medicine to go overseas for treatments?
Imagine if the Bahamas or Bermuda or somewhere in the Caribbean close by to America, starts up a system like you mentioned.
I know that Democrats have no shame, but I really wonder what Obama and Harry Reid would think if something like this happens. Then the only people accessing “qualify affordable healthcare” in America will be those with no other choices.
There is a plastic surgery clinic/fancy hospital on Tortolla in the British Virgin Islands that specializes in making the rich and famous look their best.
The last time I was in Tortolla I saw Senator Kennedy sitting at a marina bar. He had just had a big piece of his formerly large gin blossumed nose removed at the Bougainvillea Clinic.
A little tort reform, appropriate deregulation, etc, and we could have medical tourist coming to America. No way those price differentials are wholly related to wages.
A little tort reform, appropriate deregulation, etc, and we could have medical tourist coming to America. No way those price differentials are wholly related to wages.
As per our conversation in the recent past.
A good article to keep on file. I’ve heard nurses and doctors call into Rush’s show and talk about S American countries that now have their own private hospitals and private insurance companies, all staffed by American healthcare professionals. I’ve also heard Rush talk about medical cruises...floating hospitals in international waters...apparently already happening.
BWAH! We pinged each other 58 seconds apart. Great minds.
I have seen a few results of “dental tourism” from Mexico and Thailand. One was an RN who had every tooth in her upper jaw “crowned” in Mexico. She was in her 30’s and healthy. There was absolutely no need to do crowns on every tooth. They were so poorly done that in a few years they became hopelessly decayed and had to have every tooth removed and replaced with a plastic removable denture. Even the worst dentist is Alaska would never have sold this unfortunate lady on such an extreme remedy to her complaint. There is no peer review for these procedures and of course no remedy or follow up. Do some people get good care from dental tourism? I am sure there are some and perhaps many who do. I just wouldn’t buy the story that it all good and so much cheaper than in the US.
You are also going to see a “brain drain” from the United States of those with college and advanced degrees, professionals and others, making significant money (through good old boostrapping up, hard work, of course and not necessarily inheritance), and I predict a great number of people whom the United States really needs are just going to say “Screw it, I’m not going to be anybody’s tax slave,” Go Galt, and head for Fiji, or Tonga, or Malaysia, or Singapore, or Australia, or somewhere else, when Obamacare really starts to kick in. Same with seniors. In the meantime, low skilled, uneducated, diseased, illiterate, and socialist-prone third world citizens are going to flood in by the hundreds of thousands. After 20 or 30 years, you are not even going to be able to recognize the United States in my opinion. Of course this is all be design, and Obamacare is the first stake in the heart of our Great Republic. The US Senate drove it in this morning, and did so with laughter at that.
This is already being scenario-ed and written up in business plan proposals, I can tell you.
Trying to break America by any means necessary.
May it never be so.
Couldn’t agree more......like the long suffering but loyal wife who is the last to know !!
Perhaps in your experience, but my wife suffered a common ailment while in the UK and it was an absolute nightmare. . .from delayed and archaic treatment, to the cracked and dirty floors, to the Docs that hardly spoke English and therefore would not get the facts as presented. . . .and we can expect that sort of care when we have obamacare. Uncaring and arrogant physicians unwilling to reassess their diagnosis—and get angry if you challenge them, as do the ROP Docs do, more so than American Docs, dirty facilities, waiting lines, rationing, etc.
Not me.
I use my medical coverage and pick my Docs (none with ababa-something names), and always receive exceptional care with Docs that know what they are talking about, and encourage a second opinion if asked/challenged.
Thanks for posting this.
About a year ago, I made a reply to a similiar post re overseas medicine/dentistry. I noted that during the economic booms after WWII, many of the American Dentists saw a tremendous opportunity to get rich quick and stay rich by handling the dental problems of the poor from the depression, dust bowl and lack of care during WWII.
In a shorttime they priced themselves out of the market, and retired American Dentists or semi retired America Dentists opened up dental shops in Mexico across our borders from Texas to California.
Americans drove down and had their bad teeth removed and a few days later were fitted with dentures. My grandparents did this. The total cost for both of them including travel was about 1/4 of the estimated cost for one of them in the States.. They never had problems with the removals and new dentures. Later many older aunts/uncles, cousins and others went to Mexico to save money.
Flash forward a few decades. A little over a decade ago, I had taken early retirement with no dental benefits, our dentist looked into my mouth and saw tuition and expenses for his failure to launch son and alimony payments to his ex wife, who was too lazy to get a job, and paychecks for the too many staff members he had. His estimated total cost was between $20-30,000 plus the misery of having something done about every month, which didn’t need to be done at that time.
I called time out and said every filling/crown he wanted to remove, he had put in my mouth and because of his skill, I was not having any problems. He tried the mercury bs warning and I said that was bs. That has been proven to be bs with recent studies.
So we made a deal. He would replace crowns if/when I had a problem or the fillings if there was a problem. I would pay cash and get a good senior discount. If he didn’t do that I would go elsewhere.
His feelings were hurt at that time. But it has worked out well for me over the decade plus. Most of my previous crowns and fillings with the exception of one have been replaced when needed with the discount. I limit the Xrays to every two years, and that was cancelled last year due to the Xrays and MRI for my knee repair. Last but least, I was not going to pay an extra $50/75 for the so called gum measurements where the tech tells an unnecessary worker what my gums look like each tooth. The tech can make her judgement before or after each cleaning.
You make me laugh! There are bad doctors and dentists everywhere! I can tell you many horror stories of dentist procedures done in United States.
The fact remains, overwhelming people have positive experience with medical tourism.
Under my constitution anyone who advocated socialism in any form, no matter if they were five years old and just reading it out of a book, would be deported to Cuba. I'd also make it a point to have a top notch military force, including a small blue water navy and nukes, so that everybody who was jealous and wanted to take it from us would stay in their own lousy countries.
This is already being done. In southern Mexico they are building hospitals in anticipation of US citizens going there. My own dentist here plans on going there for medical treatment, which his insurance company has already approved.
I’d love to be able to invest in one of them.
Or even better, to move and work in one.
Glad I could spread some cheer. I stand by my statement. BTW do you have any hard facts to back up your statement regarding overwhelming positive experiences with medical tourism. Remember I was referring to dentistry. I am all for capitalism in health care whether national or international. In the US peer review such that it is does exist. I don’t see that happening for a dentist in Bangkok.
;-)
And, judging from dental care there, I would not have any medical work done in the United Kingdom.
In fact, their system is precisely what we are headed to under Obamacare.
So, agreed, "not me!", too!
Merry Christmas.
Will this be the next growth industry for Native American reservations?
Just wait.
Or, just to live.
But I'm glad to see that there are places competing for all the Iraqui and Afghani docs that are starting to infest our hospitals. Let them go to Costa Rica.
Hard statistics are not compiled by many on success or failure on medical tourism....however people (patients) are voting with their pocketbooks in INCREASING numbers. Most people learn about this from friends/family who had a good experience.
Here is a article worth reading:
http://www.health-tourism.com/medical-tourism/statistics/
Cost $ 400 and that included a month long stay in the Surgeons house.
Did I mention she's his godmother : )
Most of the medical tourist I have met in Thailand are British, Canadian and Australian. Germans and Scandinavians are close behind.They all seem to have near horror stories about the wait for service at home.
I toured a hospital in Bangkok and personally thought it superior to our local billion dollar behemoth. I also had some 13 moles removed by a dermatologist with a laser, at a small doctors hospital for 120 USD.I could not of have had an office visit for that price in my town.
And yes I am thinking of having other work done.
Early December I lost a crown.
Even though I told her up front that I hadn’t had a paycheck in 3 years, a local dentist charged me $162.00 to stick it back in with a temporary adhesive. (She tried to get away with charging me $262.00!)
She told me it would last 2-4 weeks. Yeah? Then what? She also told me I had a cavity on the proximal surface of the adjacent tooth. ca-ching!
I had it permanently bonded in Tijuana last week. He also polished off the stain on the proximal surface of the adjacent tooth, there was no cavity. Total cost? $20.00
Do the math.
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