Gastric Bypass: Travel to Guatemala or Loose my home? – Angels Abroad

Mrs. Margaret Mckenzie, a nurse from Grass Valley, California, made a trip to Guatemala. She contacted a company named, Angels Abroad, and through them, contacted Dr. Rodrigo Gonzalez Toledo, a bariatric surgeon trained in the US. She had an open gastric bypass on September 6th 2008, at Las Americas Hospital in Guatemala city.

What is interesting about this story is that, Mrs. Mckenzie has a health insurance, and they can cover a gastric bypass. The problem is that she didn’t had enough money to pay a co-payment and deductible. Co-payment was US $24,000.

It was cheaper to pay an air ticket to go to Guatemala, plus, ground transportation, cell phone, concierge service, meals, hotel, all medical expenses including 4 nights at a 5-star hospital, nurse service, a tour to a tourist attraction and she paid for her companion expenses. All these was less expensive than using her own health insurance. She saved US $10,000.

Due to her weight loss, Mrs. Mckenzie is going to be able to have a better life.

With tears in her eyes, she told that if she had surgery in the US, she probably had to mortgage, for second time, her house. This is a reality americans are considering, to travel abroad to have invasive surgeries, not just cosmetic. Though it is a hard decision to travel to a called “third world country”, and find physicians trained in the US, using state of the art technology, it is becoming necessary, for americans to survive and not loose all of their money in the process.

Please click here to request additional information from Angels Abroad.

More Americans Seeking Surgery Abroad – John. H, GoSculptura

High costs in U.S. are driving some patients to seek affordable plastic surgery in Argentina, and affordable gastric bypass and affordable cosmetic dentistry abroad, said John H., Director at GoSculptura, a company that sends dozens of patients each month abroad for specialized medical procedures.

Dismayed by high surgical costs in the U.S., increasing numbers of American patients are packing their bags to have necessary surgery performed in countries such as Argentina, India, Thailand, and Singapore.

According to Mark D. Smith, president and chief executive officer of the California HealthCare Foundation in Oakland, People are desperate. This illustrates the growing unaffordability of the U.S. health care system, even to people who are by no means indigent.

1) American Patients going abroad
John. H, Director at GoSculptura says there has been a 72% increase in the last 12 months in the number of American patients seeking care at the network of international clinics and Hospitals that Gosculptura covers. Patients are mostly looking for affordable plastic surgery in Argentina, affordable gastric bypass and affordable cosmetic dentistry treatment options.

Cost is a major factor – patients typically save upwards of 60% from the rates charged at U.S. hospitals. Mr John H. indicates a surge in volume from patients seeking treatments against morbid obesity (affordable gastric bypass & banding procedures): Treatments against obesity are not optional. Patients can die if they do not have access to these. Patients come to us as they are out of options in the U.S. Their country, their healthcare system leaves them on their own.

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