Low Plastic Surgery Prices Draw More Tourists

Low Costs of Cosmetic Surgery Draw Tourists for Breast Lift Surgery and Other Procedures

The US has always had a well deserved reputation for the quality of its healthcare, a reputation that has been responsible for patients from around the world (those who could afford it anyway) arriving at the country’s premier hospitals for major surgeries.  The traffic still exists, only now it’s made a drastic U-turn in the opposite direction.  Many Americans, uninsured, underinsured, or otherwise, are making long haul trips to countries like Thailand, India, and Singapore for health reasons in a phenomenon known as medical tourism. So heavy is this flow of patients to India and other Asian countries that the term medical tourism has taken its place in the American healthcare lexicon.  What started as a small trickle of uninsured Americans who couldn’t afford hefty price tags for major life-saving surgeries in their country has turned into a tide of patients who visit Asian and South American countries for every medical procedure imaginable.   

Some are lured by the dramatically lowered plastic surgery prices like the costs of breast lift surgery that are a fraction of the cost back home. Others flock to India for premier hip and knee replacement surgeries that require a lengthy wait list of up to years in their home countries.  Still others arrive for innovative new procedures like hip resurfacing that are not commonly available in their home countries.  Whatever the reason, an overwhelming majority of them return completely satisfied with their medical tourism experience, ready to spread the word. 

Low Plastic Surgery and Other Procedure Prices Are Combined with the Highest Quality of Care

While lowered rates for medical procedures are the main reasons why people grab their passport and hop on a plane overseas, the quality of healthcare abroad has a lot to do it.  Critics of this trend expend incredible amounts of energy painting doomsday scenarios for those who might consider going abroad for medical care.  Quite predictably, these are almost always members of the American health care system (and accompanying attorneys, lobbyists, and politicians) who decry the medical tourism industry.  After all, they stand to lose the most when healthcare moves offshore.  When more numbers of people head overseas for major elective or life-saving procedures, doctors and hospitals lose money on these money spinning surgeries.  And cynical as it may sound, the fewer people dying or getting disfigured in American hospitals means lawyers have fewer opportunities to scream wrongful death or personal injury or whatever.  In any case, it’s a little insulting to American medical travelers to assume that they would chose an unsafe option solely because its cheaper.  Medical tourism exists because it’s affordable; it thrives because it offers the finest healthcare at a cost effective price.  Due caution is always prudent and one should conduct thorough research about the potential dangers of medical tourism.  But success rates abroad certainly seem to suggest that procedures in Thailand and India are every bit as safe (if not more so) than what you might expect in the States.