In yesterday’s interview with Dr. Miguel Alfaro of Costa Rica, he candidly noted that the number of plastic surgery patients coming to Costa Rica from outside the country is down by perhaps 15-20 percent in 2008. This should surprise no one, given the state of the economy in the United States. In fact, Costa Rican plastic and cosmetic surgeons are probably weathering the economic slowdown better than are their higher priced counterparts in the U.S. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons estimates that business is down more than 50 percent, according to CNN, as reported by the Business and Media Institute.

The market for cosmetic procedures in Costa Rica, Mexico and other medical travel destinations has held up better than the U.S. market primarily because of the large price differential and because more Americans than ever before are aware that plastic surgery abroad is a relative bargain. Plastic surgery and dentistry travel (or both, combined) remain among the top choices of BridgeHealth International clients in 2008. People who might have opted for procedures costing $10,000 to $30,000 or more at home are instead getting the same work done abroad for perhaps $3,000 to $10,000.

The CNN report linked below looks only at the sharp decline in cosmetic surgery in the U.S. We thank Dr. Alfaro for his estimate regarding patients in Costa Rica. The video is better viewed on their site due to the format of the file.

Plastic Surgery’s Nip: CNN

The Motley Fool’s reason for existing is “to educate, amuse and enrich.” The website has been dispatch breezy and sometimes irreverent financial advice to millions since about 1996. (It looked pretty different back then, too.) Late last week, Fool came out with its take on medical tourism:

Medical Vacations: The Retiree Health-Care Solution?

Despite the question mark, the Fool’s verdict was pretty one-sided.

The debate over U.S. health-care reform rages on. But why wait for someone else to dictate your future? You have many options — if you’re willing to take a vacation. If recovering from a medical procedure while lying on a palm-swept beach, relaxing by the hotel pool, or shopping for terrific bargains sounds good, then medical vacations may be exactly the right solution for you.

In other words — go for it. At The Bridge — and at BridgeHealth International — most folks cringe a little when life-saving or enhancing medical care is discussed in terms of being part of a vacation, but we’ll forgive Fool’s lightheartedness as long as patients recognize it for what it is.

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Andres Oppenheimer, a popular and sometimes controversial columnist for the Miami Herald, has generated a buzz on the newspaper’s website with his personal account of the healthcare he received in Mexico, where he was hospitalized for three weeks after a potentially life-threatening emergency. Oppenheimer was stricken during dinner and damaged his esophagus when he became ill. He had a rare medical condition called Boerhaave Syndrome, which, left unattended, can be fatal. He writes:

By the time the ambulance arrived at the nearest hospital — the Angeles Mocel hospital — they had convened a first-class team of physicians who were awaiting me. It didn’t take long for Dr. Jorge Salas, the lung doctor who presided over the team, to rule out a heart attack and enlist thoracic surgeon Dr. Patricio Santillan for an operation to remove the more than four pints of gastric fluid in my chest. After a six-hour operation, I spent two weeks in intensive care and another week in a single-bed room until I was released — with all tests showing excellent results — on June 28. Doctors tell me that I should be back to normal in a matter of weeks.

The full article is here:

To your health: You can care for it abroad

Oppenheimer is quick to point out that he is something of a VIP, and perhaps got better care than would the average tourist. “Medical tourism experts warn that there are both good hospitals and lousy hospitals in Mexico,” he adds. “You can land in a bad one, and you are history (plus you can forget about suing anybody for malpractice).”

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Medical travel and tourism continues to be poked and prodded in the U.S. media and, increasingly, the news is catching up with the most significant trend in the nascent industy.

And that is, that patients can go outside of the United States for high quality medical care at far lower costs than at home is becoming part of how businesses, insurers and consumers — together — are fighting to contain costs for needed healthcare. The May issue of Fast Company covers the topic and the issues it raises, in considerable depth, in an article headlined, simply, Medical Leave. The article is a snapshot of U.S. healthcare at a crossroads:

“The phrase “medical tourism” was once used to describe early retirees jetting in to Bangkok or Bangalore to have a little work done before recuperating on the beach. That image doesn’t jibe with the numbers today. As many as half a million Americans streamed abroad last year in search of affordable alternatives for hip replacements or prostate surgery. And they went not for the postsurgical tanning but for the savings: up to 90% off the going rates in the United States. They went because 47 million Americans lack insurance and can’t pay for surgery to fix a bad back or clogged arteries. Or because they have insurance but can’t begin to pay the soaring deductibles a major surgery entails. They’re fleeing a system that is by far the most expensive in the world and growing more so by the hour, with diminishing returns in quality of care.”

The FastCompany.com article makes it clear — U.S. businesses and insurers are integrating medical travel into healthcare offerings at whatever pace that consumers will accept — and as consumers learn more about healthcare outside the U.S., they accept or even embrace it.

That has also been the experience of Stephanie Sulger, BridgeHealth International vice president, who has been helping patients get the care they need at a cost they can afford for the past six years.

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