The American Healthcare Exodus Shows no Signs of Stopping

Elective procedures are rarely covered by insurance, which means they are the purest expression of the US system’s greed. This is where the travel gets interesting. Want a tummy tuck, a facelift, or a breast augmentation? You can shell out tens of thousands in Beverly Hills, or you can head to destinations like Brazil or Thailand, which have world-class private facilities and surgeons trained in the same techniques, but with a dramatically lower overhead.

Then there’s the niche that’s exploded into its own industry: hair restoration. People are heading to Mexico and even further east to enjoy the 70% lesser Turkey hair transplant cost. But it’s not all about cosmetics and beauty. Bariatric surgeries, like gastric sleeves and bypasses—often crucial for managing severe obesity and related conditions—can cost $20,000 to $30,000 in the U.S. In Thailand , the same operation can be had for under $10,000.

The most shocking and compelling numbers, however, are reserved for the truly life-saving care. A coronary artery bypass graft (CABG), or open-heart surgery, can easily cost upwards of $100,000 in the States, yet the same procedure can be performed in  Turkey for as low as $7,000 to $25,000 at hospitals boasting the same international accreditations. Fertility treatments (IVF), which often require multiple cycles and can cost $15,000 to $20,000 per attempt here, see patients flying to Spain or Greece to save over half that price. Even the final frontier of expensive care, oncology/cancer treatments, is driving Americans to Germany or South Korea.

 

Billions of Dollars Down the Drain

The irony is a bitter pill to swallow: Americans—the supposedly most privileged healthcare consumers in the world—are becoming globetrotting bargain hunters for basic medical care. We are forced to choose between our financial well-being and our physical health, and increasingly, the answer is a low-cost carrier departing for a country with a more sane, humane approach to medicine.

Of course, medical tourism isn’t without risks. Post-operative complications, language barriers, and issues with follow-up care are real concerns. But when the alternative is medical debt that haunts you for life, the risk calculation drastically shifts.

The fact that millions of Americans view a trip to a foreign hospital as their most affordable, sensible healthcare option is a blistering indictment of the system we’ve built. Until the US decides that healthcare is a right, not a profit center, the American exodus for affordable treatment will only continue to accelerate.

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The Splinter editorial staff was not involved in the creation of this content.