Costa Rica Health Tourism – 40 Thousand Patients by 2019
Reports from the Costa Rican Tourism Institute revealed that affordable plastic surgery in the country maintains a growth rate of 15%. Proof of this is the number of patients who fly to the country to have surgery, mainly due to the increase in the cost of plastic surgery in their country of origin. In 2007, plastic surgery in Costa Rica helped 5,000 patients in their search for the best healthcare solution to compete with the United States and Europe in terms of safety and quality at a relatively affordable cost. Most of these patients looking for affordable plastic surgery come mainly from places like Europe, Mexico, and even Central America. In fact, researchers in the medical tourism sector estimate that the country’s affordable plastic surgery could receive around 40,000 patients each year by 2019.
To increase the country’s demand and market plastic surgery in Costa Rica, many doctors are coming together to create an elite medical group to care for patients who choose to undergo plastic surgery in Costa Rica. So far, at least five companies or medical consortia have been registered whose purpose is to capture the growing market that only in the United States represented around 750,000 patients last year. The main objective of these companies is to promote health care to patients overwhelmed by the costs of plastic surgery and to defend the quality of health care in Costa Rica as one of the ideal destinations to obtain world-class and affordable medicines.
Plastic surgery in Costa Rica has an excellent platform of hospitals that specialize in elective and major surgeries. The country has many hospitals that are accredited by the Joint Commission International Accreditation, a US non-governmental organization that oversees the services offered by hospitals around the world. This resulted in a 20% increase in demand coming mainly from international insurance companies. In the Clínica Bíblica Hospital alone, between 200 and 250 operations were performed, of which 90% are for tourists. Two other world-class hospitals are working on their respective accreditation, Hospital Clínica Católica and CIMA Costa Rica, which has an investment of US$200,000.
To take a look at the medical travel packages and cost of plastic surgery offered in Costa Rica, here are some of the travel packages offered by famous US-based medical tourism agencies. For a dental work travel package that includes, all transportation, a 15-day stay at one of the country’s specialty hotels, lunch, a free tour of the national park from a choice of three, a massage, and the surgical procedure, the cost is around US$2,450. The gastric bypass procedure for obesity with the same inclusive services will only cost you US$18,000. And the most popular are the plastic surgery packages that cost around $2,650. Patients can save almost 60% of the total cost when compared to prices in the United States and Europe.
Patients can choose to stay fifteen days in a rural hotel or in a recovery center for a more private recovery. In some cases, patients are so captivated by the place that they decide to buy a property of their own and recuperate forever in one of the most luxurious real estate in Costa Rica.