Beauty from Afar

In my summaries of the cosmetic procedures and surgeries that many people go out of country for, it looks as though in 2004-2005 I was working from head to toe … the last sections being mostly about the head and face and this one moving down to the torso.

Chapter 4 Page 4 | Breasts, Arms and Tummies …

However, it’s coincidence. In the next post, we’ll be back up to the hair and then down to the legs. I honestly cannot recall if there was a reason for the order in which I placed the procedures in Chapter 4 of Beauty from Afar. It is conceivable that they appear in the order in which I thought of them.

I’m surprised by this, considering the amount of effort I remember putting in to organizing where things went. But I’m not going to go all alphabetical on you now.

The posting of Beauty from Afar resumes this evening with more of my laundery list of cosmetic surgery procedures that many people have done abroad at considerable savings.

Chapter 4 Page 3 | Eyelids, Foreheads, Noses and Peels

Again, please note that I came up with the price ranges in 2004-2005; however, my educated guess is that they are mostly still pretty much on the mark in 2009-2010. I would love to hear from readers who have substantive information on the subject. At some point — after Beauty from Afar is all the way online — I’ll try to revisit and update relative prices again.

Cosmetic surgery is not a commodity. All facelifts are not created equal. And “How much is a facelift in Mexico?” … or in California, or Costa Rica, or Malaysia is not, are not questions that have tidy, brisk answers. You pay for the experience of the surgeon. You pay for geography. You pay what the market will bear.

Chapter 4 Page 2 | Cosmetic Surgeries and Procedures

Despite the efforts of my editor to wring specifics from me on cosmetic surgery prices, I held to broad ranges when characterizing what cosmetic surgeons charge in different countries — or even within one country, or in your neighborhood. As such, the information I gathered in 2004-2005 is probably just about as relevant now as it was then. Surgery prices have no doubt risen for some, declined for some and stayed about the same for others. Fluctuations of the dollar and exchange rates have mostly been unfavorable for overseas surgeons who operate on U.S. residents — but not extraordinarily so.

There are some changes, surely … and I hope readers will enlighten me as we go.

We commence today with Chapter 4 of Beauty from Afar, for which I half apologized in advance. I really needn’t have, now that I look at it again. Immodestly, I don’t mind saying that I like the way it starts out, and I have Joseph Cohen, M.D., of the Rosenstock-Lieberman Center for Cosmetic Plastic Surgery in San Jose, Costa Rica, to thank for that.

Chapter 4 Page 1 | You’re Going Abroad for…What !?

Dr. Cohen’s candor made him a terrific person to interview on the subject of what surgical procedures people go overseas for, and why; that he, a prominent cosmetic surgeon in Costa Rica, would consider going to the U.S. (hypothetically) for his own care, under certain circumstances, I think makes for a nice balance in a book that is mostly about people going in the other direction. And it gives him credibility.

We’ve now covered 76 pages of the original text of Beauty from Afar, which has worked out to 37 web pages. That seems about right to me … and it means I’m about a third done, which feels substantial.

I’ve mostly resisted the journalistic urge to step too far outside the boundaries of the book, but anyone interested in the business of medical tourism ought to go read Brendan Borrell’s Reuters story, published today:

Controversial couple dominates U.S. medical tourism

I don’t see how this has any real impact on patients, mind you, or I’d be more concerned. As a nascent “industry,” though, medical tourism has not traveled all that far since I first wrote about it in 2004-2005. The squabbles are a little bigger.

It was really in 2004 and 2005 when the U.S. media “discovered” Medical Tourism … about the same time I did. (Maybe just a little after I did. ) And it was discovered because the media noticed that people were going overseas for serious, life-saving procedures, not just cosmetic surgery and dentistry.

Chapter 3 Page 5 | The Media Imprimatur

Medical tourism and travel has been episodically in the news in the U.S. ever since and remains a story in parallel with the dominant narrative about healthcare reform in the U.S. that arose in 2008 — 2009.  I’ve often been asked if real healthcare reform in the United States would be the end of medical tourism, and the answer is no. Medical tourism and international medical care will remain less costly alternatives and U.S. patients and insurers will continue to explore and integrate the travel-for-care options that are available.

We’ve hit the end of Chapter 3. Chapter 4 will look at what surgeries and procedures that patients choose to have done overseas — specifically, it is mostly a list of cosmetic procedures and average prices and savings in 2004 — 2005. As I go through it, I’ll try to put forth any updates of which I am aware. Chapters 4 and 5 (which is a tutorial on doing Internet research) are, to me, the driest parts of the book but I’ve encountered readers who thanked me for them. So … off we go. Tomorrow, probably.

I don’t know anyone who likes to refer to “Medical Tourism” as “Medical Tourism.” Funny, huh? But someone came up with it in the 1990s, and we are still about half-stuck with it. Increasingly, people in the business prefer the reference “medical travel,” which doesn’t have the the assumed frivolity of “tourism” as baggage.

Chapter 3 Page 4 | Origins of  the term “Medical Tourism” (cont.)

The earliest references I found for the phrase “Medical Tourism” were in 1998, as noted in today’s segment.