The recent kidnapping of four Americans in Mexico highlights a common practice for many people in the U.S.: traveling to other countries for medical care that either is not available at home or costs a lot less.
The four were abducted — leading to the deaths of two — during a trip to Mexico that one relative said was for cosmetic surgery.
People leave the U.S. for dental procedures, plastic surgery, cancer treatments and prescription drugs, experts say. Besides Mexico, other common destinations include Canada, India and Thailand.
Here’s a closer look at the practice.
MEDICAL TOURISM GROWING
Medical tourism has been growing in popularity for years, according to Lydia Gan, an economist at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke who studies the practice.
This travel is popular with people who have no health insurance or plans that make them pay thousands of dollars before coverage begins.
Big employers also sometimes send people covered by their insurance to other countries for hip or knee replacements or bariatric surgery. Some also send people to Mexico for expensive prescription drugs.
Cost is a huge factor. Care in countries like Mexico can be more than 50% cheaper than it is in the United States, according to Jonathan Edelheit, CEO of the non-profit Medical Tourism Association, an industry trade group.
And cosmetic surgeries, like tummy tucks that cost thousands of dollars, are largely uncovered by U.S. health insurers.
Patients also sometimes travel because they can get quicker access to some care outside the U.S. They also may want to seek treatment from a doctor who speaks their language or comes from the same culture.
MILLIONS OF TRIPS
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says millions of U.S. residents travel abroad for care annually.
Researcher Arturo Bustamante estimates that roughly 400,000 people traveled from the U.S. to Mexico each year for care before COVID-19 hit. The University of California, Los Angeles health policy professor said the number dropped under pandemic stay-at-home orders but then quickly rebounded.
Most of the people visiting Mexico for care are Mexican or Latino immigrants living in the United States, he said.
Non-Latino patients mainly cross the border for dental work, to buy prescription drugs or receive care like plastic surgery or some cancer treatments not covered in the U.S.
WEIGHING RISKS
Patients can take steps to lessen risks of receiving care in another country.
They should heed U.S. government travel alerts about their intended destinations, Edelheit said.
Trip safety also can be enhanced if a medical tourism agent works with the patient, Gan noted. Hospitals or care providers often will have someone pick patients up at the airport and take them to their doctor appointment or hotel.
Patients also should do research on care quality before looking at prices, Edelheit said. They should learn where their potential doctor received training and look for any accreditations or certifications.
“They really need to make sure they are going with the best of the best,” he said.
The risk for patients may not end after the procedure. If someone has complications after returning home, it may be hard for their U.S. doctor to learn the details about the care received during a trip.
Patients also may find it difficult to sue their doctor or hospital in Mexico, Bustamante said.
“Navigating the system is usually complicated,” he said.
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21 Comments
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virusrex
As described in the article this can be a risky way to get a necessary or optional medical treatment, which is unfortunately too common thanks to the huge problems with medical insurance in the US, and it is nothing that just began to happen. There is a 10 year old joke about a patient spending more money by getting a new hip in the US than if he travel to get the surgery in Spain, recover while living there, running with the bulls in the San Fermin festival and get the hip replacement broken, to finally get another replacement.
RKL
As described in the article this can be a risky way to get a necessary or optional medical treatment, which is unfortunately too common thanks to the huge problems with medical insurance in the US,
In the US medical insurance does not cover cosmetic (optional) medical treatment, so it is irrelevant if there are "problems" with medical insurance.
wallace
The largest sector of bankruptcies is medical ones. Many health insurance plans, unlike universal health, do not cover all the medical treatment needed. The high costs of drugs force some people to buy them from Canada and Mexico. Insulin is way too expensive for needy people. 40 million people can't afford basic healthcare.
Many tens of thousands die every year not able to receive treatment.
Medical tourism can be dangerous and disastrous for many.
virusrex
Since the problems are not exclusive to cosmetic medical treatments (which are not the only kind of procedures that are optional or elective) then obviously it is completely relevant. Pretending every procedure US citizens are choosing to do in other countries are cosmetic is obviously an invalid point and clearly refuted in the article.
nishikat
Medical insurance can potentially cover reconstructive cosmetic/plastic surgery in any country. Some Americans go outside for more affordable healthcare. Also some Americans go outside for healthcare in a country that has a better efficacy rate than in the US and it's not just about saving money.
RKL
No US medical insurance pays for cosmetic surgery. So, there is no link between cosmetic surgery and lack of medical insurance.
nishikat
It does for stuff like mastectomies, disfiguring accidents, extreme cases like if someone is born with an extreme deformity. etc. The Japanese national healthcare system even does in some cases and so does the American system - around the world too. You want a tummy tuck or a simple nose job that's another story. There might be a difference between cosmetic vs plastic, but they can overlap.
virusrex
A simple search can prove this to be wrong, cosmetic surgery can be covered by insurance depending of several factors, what evidence do you have to refute what actual experts say about this?
https://www.apresplasticsurgery.com/blog/what-cosmetic-surgery-procedures-are-covered-by-insurance/
kurisupisu
I regularly have procedures done outside Japan which are up to a fifth of the Japanese price.
I’ve found that the care and attention to detail and time taken are usually better than that in Japan.
FizzBit
Yeah, what happened to the health care debate? Obama promises turned into just an insurance scam. I guess with all the Dem bots addicted to Ukraine, there will be nothing done. All according to plan. Bring back Ralph Nader who was neutered by the Dems.
Local Gaijin
I’ve had two knees replaced in Japan. In fact at the time of my second knee replacement, my sister was having one done in the U.S. She got an itemized bill for hers. Just the metal joint they put in cost around $20,000.
Of course, I had insurance here. But, had I not had insurance, the total cost of my surgery would have been around $20,000. including a nine day hospital stay versus maybe one in the U.S.
The Japanese system works far more efficiently than the U S one. And if you want to talk about, quality of care, you wouldn’t want to get my sister started Her surgical leg was left centimeters shorter than her non surgical leg. She had to have her knee done a second time and it still isn’t right. I on the other hand have a better quality of life and nearly never have any pain compared to the decades I waited to get the surgery on the advice of U.S. doctors.
wallace
My aging American mother had two new hips and two new knees which were very expensive. Many tens of thousands.
wallace
kurisupisu
Your wife works as a nurse you once said. In Japan, you are only paying 30%. My cancer op cost just ¥150,000. In the US it would have cost many thousands of dollars. $8507 to $15690.
nishikat
Obama wanted the public option and the other side voted it out. He also wanted to raise the compensation for Medicaid practitioners (which the other side didn't want). That would have worked well. Proof? Look at Japan with their big public [option -- main system]. It's funny that Trump people live and stay in Japan (and use the public health system) but hate ObamaCare. ObamaCare didn't work because of the Republicans.
Trump's Trumpcare is nothing but injecting Mr. Clean to treat COVID-19. Other than that there is no TrumpCare plan.
One more thing. Obamacare was invented by the Republicans, especially the mandate (which Japan has especially)
RKL
A simple search can prove this to be wrong, cosmetic surgery can be covered by insurance depending of several factors, what evidence do you have to refute what actual experts say about this?
You performed the wrong search. And a two year old link!
Again, cosmetic surgery is not covered by insurance, and the "actual experts" say nothing about this, unless you refer to the insurance experts, because the medical doctors do not determine if insurance covers procedures or not..
So, how it works in the US, let's look at rhinoplasty (for laymen like us it means nose job).
This procedure is given a CPT code, for which most under that code are denied as non-covered. When would the nose job be covered?
When the purpose is not to improve the person's appearance, and there are signs of abnormalities, insurance might cover the procedure as it is a medically necessary procedure. When the purpose is only to improve the person's appearance and there are no abnormalities it is considered cosmetic and will be denied as non-covered.
virusrex
It is not wrong nor there is any evidence this is not valid right now.
What evidence do you have that the source (with experts that belong to the American Board of Plastic Surgery, American Society of Plastic Surgeons and American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgey) are wrong when they explicitly contradict you?
Doctors that say their procedures are covered by insurance have a much more valid appeal to authority than you that presented absolutely no evidence to contradict them, obivously you have no valid appeal of authority to do it.
Again, YOU claiming is not covered while surgeons saying it can be means they are much more likely to be correct.
The examples given clearly include the purpose of improving the person appearance and still being considered medically necessary, the link makes that very clear. This reason do not demonstrate the cosmetic procedures are not covered but the opposite, explains situations where they are, while still being cosmetic. Other users have made the same point, against whom you also failed to provide any evidence to contradict them, only claims not supported by anything.
nishikat
WOW! Which country is this? Does this include expensive cancer treatments?
And it maxes out around 60 or 100 thousand per month and if it gets real expensive and/or chronic you get an extra break.
Medical insurance can potentially cover reconstructive cosmetic/plastic surgery in any country.
Which is it? No consistency in your argument.
CPTOMO
virusrexToday 11:20 am JST
It is not wrong nor there is any evidence this is not valid right now.
What evidence do you have that the source (with experts that belong to the American Board of Plastic Surgery, American Society of Plastic Surgeons and American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgey) are wrong when they explicitly contradict you?
You are completely wrong. None of those institutions are insurance companies.
In the USA the insurance company ultimately decides whether or not a procedure is covered.
The doctors or surgeons, American Board of Plastic Surgery---NONE of those have the ability to approve or deny insurance coverage.
And as mentioned above, CPT codes are used to determine if a procedure is for only cosmetic purposes (and will therefore be denied).
https://www.cms.gov/medicare-coverage-database/view/article.aspx?articleId=58573&LCDId=38914
If you read some of the descriptions on the link it might help you to understand th process in the USA.
virusrex
Again, both accounts repeating the same baseless claim do not make it less wrong.
You keep making claims that were debunked by actual professionals that explicitly say these procedures can be covered.
So again, do you have evidence these professionals are wrong about their own field? saying they are wrong just because you think so is not an argument, if anything is the opposite because you make it clear you have no such argument.
But they still have a much more valid appeal to authority than two accounts repeating the same baseless claim, this is their field and they obviously know what can or not be approved by insurance. You on the other hand only claim the opposite without ever providing anything to support this personal belief.
What is the purpose of providing a link that actually refutes your claim? the link clearly stipulates what is necessary for cosmetic procedures to be covered. There is is very little that could be more clear than explaining precisely how to make sure the cosmetic procedures are covered by insurance. Not only does the link never proves cosmetic procedures can't be approved, it does the opposite and shows how CPT codes for cosmetic surgery CAN be approved.
So the original claim:
Has been disproved not only by experts talking about their field, but also thanks to your link, that clearly and explictly say medical insurance pay for cosmetic surgery.
Neither of the accounts proved the original mistaken claim, this is a pattern repeated in several previous articles where one of the accounts makes a false or baseless claim and the other just repeats it.
RKL
So again, do you have evidence these professionals are wrong about their own field? saying they are wrong just because you think so is not an argument, if anything is the opposite because you make it clear you have no such argument.
This is about insurance in the US that does not cover cosmetic procedures. Only surgery that is medically necessary will receive insurance coverage.
There are no professionals mentioned anywhere in the article or in your comments that works for an insurance company.
But we have the codes used by the American Medical Association, which clearly describe what kind of procedures are covered by insurance, and what kind of procedures are not.
virusrex
And a very easy to find source demonstrated that your personal opinion is mistaken, with plastic surgeons (that obviously know very well what can be or not included in insurance on the US) explicitly saying that what you believe is wrong, again, what actual evidence do you have to prove them wrong?
So your argument is that plastic surgeons have no idea of what can be covered in insurance even when they explicitly say they do? that makes no sense, they actually have a valid appeal of authority that obviously makes them a much more reliable source of information than a nameless person on the internet saying they are wrong with no evidence.
An a reference from the other account that proves these codes CAN be covered by insurance and giving instructions to do so. So you proved yourself wrong with that link.