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capital city of San José on one day, have your surgery that same day,
and be on your way home the following day. This, by the way, is not
recommended, but it is an attractive option for less invasive
procedures. For many, however, the advantage of a relatively short
flight home is what puts Costa Rica at the top of their list of medical
tourism destinations.
Coupled with the fact that Costa Rica is a favored vacation destination
for American travelers, the country is a convenient option for people
who are looking to combine a regular vacation with a health check-up
or surgery procedure. I mean, who wouldn’t want to slide into bubbling
thermal springs or explore an emerald-green rainforest and then take
care of an ailing health problem all on the same trip?
Add to this picture the luxury of a wide variety of recovery retreats,
a feature unique to Costa Rica, and it is easy to see why this country
is such an attractive destination for plastic surgery as well as other
medical procedures.
A LITTLE HISTORY
Even back in the early 1980’s there was already a healthy flow of
North American patients coming to Costa Rica for cosmetic surgery
procedures. The low cost of cosmetic and dental procedures is still
one of the main attractions for patients abroad.
Increasingly however, travel to Costa Rica and other countries for
medical care is being driven by North Americans who don’t have
health insurance or have only minimal coverage. According to the
New England Journal of Medicine, “These patients are not ‘medical
tourists’ seeking low-cost aesthetic enhancement but middle-income
Americans who need life saving surgeries and want to evade
impoverishment by succumbing to expensive healthcare options in
America.” 2 This trend of traveling abroad for life-saving medical
treatments is expected to increase dramatically over the coming years
due to rising health care costs, higher deductibles and insurance
premiums that are well beyond the reach of many middle income
Americans.
In a typical scenario, Tom, a self-employed roofing contractor, is
told by his U.S. doctor that he requires knee replacement surgery.
The price he’s quoted is close to $40,000, and, as one of America’s 47
million uninsured, Tom has no way of footing the bill.
Through a friend, Tom
hears that there may be
more inexpensive options
abroad. A Google search
brings up a hospital in
Costa Rica where Tom
learns that the exact same
procedure costs only
$9,500. After carefully
researching the site and
talking to doctors and
former patients, Tom
decides to use the hospital
to arrange his surgery and
logistics. During this time
Tom speaks several times
with his Costa Rica
physician and is impressed
by his warmth and
knowledge, as well as by
his credentials and fluency
in the English language.
Tom arrives in Costa Rica a few days before his surgery and takes
advantage of the hospital’s concierge services to visit an active volcano and
relaxing hot springs. A few days later, Tom is picked-up at his hotel by a
hospital representative and taken to the hospital for surgery. The hospital’s
caring staff and ultra-modern facilities quickly put Tom at ease. After
surgery, Tom spends three days in the hospital and an extra week in a
recovery retreat before heading back home. Total expenses including
round-trip air-fare? $10,700.
ARE WE FORGETTING ABOUT QUALITY?
Sure, soaking it up at a tropical paradise may sound all fine and dandy.
But who’s to say the masked man hovering over me is a qualified medical
professional and not some quack that just stayed at a Holiday Inn Express?
Is there any kind of government regulation? How does one weed out the
good doctors and hospitals from the bad ones?
First off, just as in life, things usually aren’t so black and white. Whether
in the United States, Canada or Costa Rica, some doctors and hospitals
simply have more experience in certain procedures and are therefore more
likely to have better outcomes. Here or abroad you’ve got many good
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