The kidnapping of four Americans who reportedly traveled to Mexico so one could undergo a “tummy tuck” has cast a spotlight on the booming medical-tourism business south of the U.S. border.
and was described by the medical tourism industry as a rare incident of violence, has not appeared to deter American patients, according to Mexican tourism officials, travel agencies and medical providers.Evelyn Ballard walked across the bridge from Brownsville, Tex., to Matamoros, where she was scheduled for liposuction.made her nervous, she said, but she was reluctant to cancel her appointment.
Americans commonly look to other countries for dental care, surgeries, fertility treatments, organ transplants and cancer care, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Mexico is the most popular destination, accounting for over 40 percent of medical tourism trips, according to a 2016 CDC survey.The survey found that prevalence of medical tourism was higher among Hispanics and people without health insurance.
About 65 to 70 percent of cross-border trips are for dental care, Woodman said. One Mexican city, Los Algodones, located near Yuma, Arizona, is known as “Molar City” for the 300 dental offices there. Another 15 percent of visits are for cosmetic care, and 5 percent are for bariatric or weight-loss surgeries, he said. The remaining 10 percent are for a wide variety of procedures, led by orthopedic care.
“People are being literally driven to look for alternatives,” Vequist said. “Those factors led somebody from South Carolina to cross the border to a place the State Department has on the highest level of threat,” he said, referring to the group that was kidnapped.Mexico is increasingly a destination for surrogacy, which was commonly provided in Ukraine before Russia’s invasion.
Jonathan Edelheit, chief executive of the Medical Tourism Association, a nonprofit portal for prospective patients, providers, employers and insurance companies, emphasized the importance of doing research and being prepared to fly to specialized destinations instead of simply crossing the border.
If things do go wrong, there is little recourse for anyone who receives substandard care outside the United States.Officials who work in medical tourism in Tamaulipas said they had never heard of an incident like the one involving the kidnapped Americans.
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