22/05/2007 The New York Times

Medical Tourism Growing Worldwide

Comparison – Facts & Figures
[...] Estimates of the value of medical tourism go as high as $14 billion a year by 2012 [...] Reasons pushing medical travel include lower healthcare costs as well as the search for medical expertise, quality of care, safety, and wait times. In Canada, the number of procedures in 2006 for which people were waiting was 782,936. Further, in that same year, Canada recorded the highest level of health spending in its history.

Similarly, a metal-free dental bridge worth $5,500 in the U.S. costs $500 in India or Bolivia and only $200 in the Philippines, a knee replacement in Thailand with six days of physical therapy costs about one-fifth of what it would in the States, and Lasik eye surgery worth $3,700 in the U.S. is available in many other countries for only $730. Cosmetic surgery savings are even greater: A full facelift that would cost $20,000 in the U.S. runs about $2,700 in the Philippines or $2,500 in South Africa or $ 2,300 in Bolivia.”

To understand the phenomenon of Medical travel, we can compare the average costs of cosmetic surgeries between the industrialized nations and the most popular countries in Latin America which are specialized in medical tourism and cosmetic surgery tourism (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Colombia, Philippines, Mexico). All the prices have been provided us by the offices affiliated with the ministries of health in USA, Europe (France, Spain, Switzerland), Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, India, and Mexico.

Benefits of Medical Tourism:
- Affordable for all customers (usually a fraction compared to most countries)
- Ease of scheduling appointment/procedure
- Better care due to better staff to patient ratios
- After patient recovers, may tour the country as a vacation
- Many companies and employers are willing to pay for patients to obtain
  health care in other countries, since this helps keep their health care costs
  down.
- Excellent way for people without insurance to pay for their procedures
- Patients may relax at a Spa after treatment

According to research found in an article by the University of Delaware publication, UDaily:

“ The cost of surgery in Bolivia, India, Thailand or Philippines can be
one-tenth of what it is in the United States or Western Europe, and
sometimes even less.