As the cost of health care continues to rise in the US Americans are realizing they can come on a medical vacation to Bangkok, Thailand and get surgery such as face lifts.They get the same quality of care they receive in the US for about one tenth of the price, and have a holiday while they’re at it too. Included in the money it costs for procedures like a face lift or tummy tuck is a round-trip ticket to Bangkok, and often a week’s vacation in a top Thai beach hotel to recuperate after surgery. It’s no wonder medical tourism in Thailand is the ‘in thing’.
To give you an idea of the average cost of medical treatment in Bangkok, here are some of the treatments available and what people normally pay for them.
I haven’t had any pricey work done but I have had dental treatments. A root canal at a Thai dentist, which was a higher standard than my dentist in the US with all the latest equipment, cost me a little over $120. A similar root canal I had in the US was $945. The only difference in care? I waited for over an hour in the US dentist office before I was taken in to see the dentist. In Thailand, the receptionist showed me into the dentist the minute I arrived.
A friend broke his collar bone in Bangkok when he fell out of a tuk-tuk. (Yes it is possible to injure yourself in a tuk-tuk). A trip to the hospital, an appointment with a doctor, x-rays and a cast plus a follow up visit to have the cast removed was an amazing $152. Similar treatment in the US would easily be between $3,000 and $5,000.
One of my mother’s friends recently had a chin lift in the US. The cost of the surgery was almost $19,000. In Bangkok at Bumrungrad International Hospital, recently named the top hospital in all of Southeast Asia, a chin lift is around $1,800. Eye lifts are about the same. And a face lift will cost you around $3,000.
I know of a man who came to Bangkok to have a sex-change operation. He had been waiting for years in the US for his psychiatrist’s ‘permission’ in order to have this surgery. After deciding he’d waited long enough, he flew to Bangkok and had the surgery done here. At $11,000 it was exactly one tenth the price of the same surgery in the United States, which would have cost him $110,000. if he could even have managed to get his psychiatrist’s permission.
After the operation, he went down to Phuket to relax on a beach while he recuperated. Two years later, he is still thrilled with the treatment he had in Thailand and vows he’ll come back if he ever needs a face lift.
Hip replacement in Thailand is $8,000 – $10,000. The US? $40,000 and up. Tooth whitening is $899- $1,000 in the United States and only $200 in Bangkok. One of the most popular surgeries in the United States, breast augmentation, runs between $7,000 and $10,000. At many of the top hospitals in Bangkok, you can get the same treatment for $2,200.
At a top Bangkok private clinic, I had Botox injections on two areas of my face. The attention I received was exemplary and, at $165, was well below the $800 I had been quoted when I was in the US.
On top of the low prices, there are no hidden extras in Thai medical facilities unlike in the US. Hospital rooms in Bangkok are the same standard as hospital rooms in the US and often even nicer. (Most top hospitals are certified by the “International Standards Organization” (ISO) and cater to Western patients). The food is better too as many of the top hospitals here have several high-end restaurants on the premises where you can order food delivered to your room.
You also won’t see any additional fees in Thai hospitals for seeing a doctor, $100 charges for hospital gowns or $10 Tylenol pills. All prices in Thailand include all doctors’ fees, prescription medication and any follow-ups needed.
So what are you waiting for? Come to Thailand, get the surgery or medical treatment you need at a fraction of the cost of the United States then, with some of the money you’ve saved, take a week or two’s vacation to one of Thailand’s top beaches.
You can stay in a 5-star hotel, eat incredible food, be waited on hand and foot, relax on some of the world’s best beaches, and still have money left over from what the same surgery would have cost you in the United States.
