Medical tourism

Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2009 | 2:05 a.m.

Elizabeth Kunz of South Carolina learned from her dentist this year that she needed eight crowns, a filling and a root canal. She shopped around and found that it would cost $10,000 — and she has medical insurance.

Her insurance company offered another option: a dentist in Costa Rica. She booked a trip. The work cost her $2,800.

She is not alone.

The Associated Press recently reported that 1.6 million Americans are expected to travel abroad next year for medical procedures. Several countries, including Mexico, Brazil and Costa Rica, have clinics that cater to so-called medical tourists, and they are doing a booming business.

Patients aren’t just going for dental work or cosmetic procedures. The clinics also offer surgeries, including heart bypass and hip and knee replacements.

The thought of people traveling abroad for medical care conjures up horrific images of poorly trained “doctors” and subpar facilities. However, advocates of medical tourism programs say many of the doctors and hospitals are just as good as you would find in the United States.

U.S. insurance companies have started working with the foreign clinics, helping patients find good doctors and agreeing to pay for care.

With the cost of medical care in this country what it is, we understand why people are willing to travel. Taking advantage of lower costs of living, drugs and medical supplies, the clinics can offer as much as an 80 percent discount.

This trend of people leaving the country to seek medical care is troubling and a sign of a bigger problem — skyrocketing health care costs. A recent study in the American Journal of Medicine suggests that six in 10 bankruptcies were due to medical bills.

Containing costs should be a focus of the debate in Congress about health care. After all, what good is having what is supposed to be the best medical system in the world if people can’t afford to use it?