Medical Tourism 101

Medical tourism is a type of tourism where people travel outside of their home country to get surgeries and other procedures done in other countries for a vastly reduced rate. For example, there was a well-documented case in Europe in 2008 where a woman from the United Kingdom needed several implants put in. Her dentist in London wanted to charge her around 40,000 pounds for the procedure. She flew to Sofia, Bulgaria and had the same procedure done and paid a grand total of $6,000 pounds for everything; hotel, airfare, food, surgeries and beyond. Her experience was only heightened by the fact that her dentist and his staff gave her the personal touch by driving her back and forth to her hotel in between the surgeries, providing her with more than just dental care, but rather a complete medical experience that she would never have received back home.

We've all heard horror stories of someone on the Internet going to a place like India or the Philippines to get plastic surgery done only to have horrible complications that left them scarred for life, physically maimed or in some way disfigured or harmed. But these cases are few and far between and are no different than any malpractice that can happen in the United States. You wouldn't go into the back alleys of Morocco to have someone give you a face-lift, and you wouldn't let some high-school dropout wielding a scalpel give you a tummy tuck while on vacation in San Francisco.

The reality is that with the advent of global Internet has come the ability to research on a global basis, and what people are finding out is that the doctors in places like Bulgaria, Mexico, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, China and beyond are just as educated, just as professional and have access to the same tools, training and equipment that the doctors in the United States have. In short, they are peers, not some sort of uneducated, backwoods hacks peddling medicine out of a black bag. You can easily verify the credentials of any doctor anywhere in the world, just as you can back in the United States, which means you can guarantee your level of service will be absolutely top-notch without any fear of issues.

Thousands on the low end, and hundreds of thousands on the high end. Take a place like Guatemala City, Guatemala, for example, which has some of the highest rated medical care in the world. The prices on medical services are there are 60% - 80% cheaper than they are in the United States...yet the standards are just as high. Bogota, Colombia is another example of a country where the cost of access to the healthcare system costs you are mere few hundred dollars per year in comparison to the health insurance in the United States which can cost you hundreds per month and thousands per year...and all of your associated surgeries and otherwise are free of charge, covered by your insurance. The same thing applies in Bulgaria, where your standard fee for use of the universal healthcare plan costs you a mere 6 leva per month (2-3 USD depending on currency rates), or you can have private health insurance for use at the private doctors for $20 to $30 per month. Meanwhile, the average bypass surgery in Canada is 83% cheaper than it is in the United States, according to the July, 2011 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. Medical tourism in Mexico is also popular, considering the universal plan is only $250 a year but gives you access to free medicine, no deductibles and prescriptions that cost pennies in comparison to the United States.

The first step is talking with experts who are already established in the medical tourism field with experience on a global scale. Location independent professionals who travel the world for a living are the best place to start, as they have on-the-ground information that you will never find via a search engine. Other than that, you can do a simple Internet search on medical tourism to turn up a number of websites that have generalized information on countries around the world. However, if you want specifics, experts such as the people at Marginal Boundaries are your best bet because they have on-the-ground resources and contacts for specific cities who can set you up with the best doctors and hospitals in their areas without the need for searching on your own. Digital nomads are your best source of information on medical tourism because these people travel for a living and know some of the best-kept secrets of healthcare on a global basis, ranging from where to go for dental work to the best countries for heart surgery or alternative treatments for cancer.