Top 10 Costa Rica

Health Tourism in Costa Rica

As the cost of health-care continues to climb, many Americans and Canadians are having elective, cosmetic or otherwise cost prohibitive procedures done in Costa Rica.

Costa Rica has a nationalized health care system that is nearly free for all residents. Quality of care ranks #36 worldwide by the World Heath Organization (the US is #37) and yet the cost per capita of health-care in Costa Rica is less than 1/10th the cost of comparable care in the US. Many procedures cost even less, in fact many procedures cost as little as a tenth the cost of comparable care in the US.

What is their secret? With cost of living expenses in Costa Rica significantly lower than the US, the cost of doing business is less. Average per-capita income in the country averages less than $12,000 per year, so labor costs are significantly lower than many other countries. Furthermore,Costa Rica has basically eliminated malpractice expenses, a primary reason why health care costs are so expensive in the US.

It’s an attitude. Costa Rica operates their health care system with the acceptance that health care providers do occasionally make mistakes. The difference in their system is that if a mistake occurs by a doctor, nurse or other party involved in providing health care services, legal claims are limited by the injured party to the actual cost of the procedure and nothing more. By taking out the cost of malpractice insurance, huge awards, litigation and compensation to these unfortunate few, their health care system is not supporting huge expenses paid through litigation. This eliminates a number of costs that we incur in the US, attorney fees, malpractice insurance costs, awards paid to injured parties for pain, lost wages and survivor benefits, etc. It also discourages the need to over test; over administer drugs and remedies, i.e. testing to find every possible malady, again out of fear of malpractice in the event some rare issue gets missed. Doctors in the US are so afraid of malpractice that they test for everything, exposing patients to unneeded surgeries, potentially lethal drugs and unnecessary expenses. This cost is passed on throughout our health care system by the hospitals, the staff, the increased use of equipment, over prescription of potentially lethal medications and the hectic pace that this over testing and fear based system requires.

How safe is their health care? The truth of the matter is that Costa Ricans have a life expectancy of longer than the US yet they pay roughly one tenth the cost per-capita of health care services . Let me repeat that. They pay a tenth of what we do yet they are expected to live longer than us. How can that be? As a result of the huge cost of health-care in the US, many of us are uninsured or under-insured. Many of us don’t get the routine care we should be getting and skip

recommended procedures designed to find issues in early stages. This results in undetected issues that if treated early are typically not costly to deal with. Instead we wait until these issues are a true emergency and often with life threatening results. Those of us who are insured bear the cost of those who are not. In reality we all pay for the uninsured since everyone is entitled to some free care in emergency situations.

Now with nationalized health care on the horizon from the Obama Administration, these costs will be mandated and spread among tax payers in the US. However until the system is fixed and doctors continue to base their care on potential malpractice exposure rather than sound health practice, them cost of health-care in the US will still be unnecessarily out of balance.