Not many US citizens know that in fact, hundreds of thousands of Americans are crossing the border into Mexico each year to receive a wide range of treatments, including medical services, dental care and cosmetic surgery, experts in what has become known as “medical tourism” say.
According to Josef Woodman, the CEO of Patients Beyond Borders, an organization advocating for medical travel, as many as 800,000 to 1 million American citizens make the trip from the U.S. to Mexico for affordable treatment each year.
That number, Woodman said, is a “conservative estimate” and excludes non-citizens and undocumented immigrants, of which he claims there are thousands who also make the trip to Mexico each year for treatment. The true number of Americans who travel south for treatment is difficult to estimate, he said, as medical travel is typically a private affair.
Woodman said he himself chooses to receive care south of the border to save costs, with the CEO recently traveling to Cancun to get dental care that he had “long since neglected.”
A treatment plan he estimated would cost $15,900 in the U.S. ended up costing Woodman $4,010 in Mexico.
“So, I saved about $10,000,” he said. “And that is not unusual. You can save a lot of money.”
According to Patients Beyond Borders’ estimates, The savings can be as high as 40 to 70 percent.