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Costa Rica Medical Travelers
a year, about 83% from the US | 70K |
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Avg. Savings
vs. US pricing | 40–80% |
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Sarawak Healthcare Travelers
in 2025, up 36% | 104K+ |
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| His insurer said no, so he flew to Costa Rica |
| Three weeks out. |
| That’s when Matthew Smith’s insurance company mailed a denial letter for his sleeve gastrectomy, after he had already passed every pre-op test. |
| Matthew was 40 and had spent his adult life losing and regaining weight, 100 pounds at a time, more than once. |
| Paying cash at home looked like $30,000 or more. |
| But a second number scared him worse: the bill that arrives if something goes wrong and you end up in intensive care. |
| In other words, $30,000 was the best case. |
| So he went looking. |
| Reddit threads, Google searches and YouTube videos from Americans who had gone abroad kept pointing him to the same place… Costa Rica. |
| He had plenty of company: about 70,000 medical travelers arrive there every year, and roughly 83% of them are American. |
| His pick was Hospital Clínica Bíblica in San José, which opened in 1929 and was the first in the country to earn JCI accreditation. |
| The logic was simple: a full-service place can handle a complication, and a small clinic might not. |
| His surgeon, Dr. Jacobo Zafrani, has New York training and does about 300 bariatric operations a year (I checked). |
| A couple of weeks before the flight, the two talked in English, and Zafrani put him on a strict high-protein, low-sugar diet. |
| Matthew landed, spent half a day on medical tests, and went into surgery two days later. |
| The operation took about 90 minutes. |
| After two more nights in the hospital and five in a hotel, he felt strong enough to stroll around San José before flying home. |
| Not a bad place to heal. |
| Now the money. |
| Medical Tourism Co. lists a sleeve package at Clínica Bíblica from $12,650. |
| Add a round-trip fare from Orlando (under $300 this year) and seven nights at a three-star hotel around $75 a night, and the whole trip lands near $13,500 before meals. |
| Sleeve gastrectomy, cash price |
| 🇺🇸 United States (no coverage) |
| $30,000 |
| ↓ |
| 🇨🇷 San José, Costa Rica |
| $12,650 |
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| | | “My only regret is not doing this surgery earlier.” | | Matthew Smith, in Men’s Health |
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| Matthew says the whole thing, travel included, cost about a third of what he would have paid at home. |
| Not even close. |
| And the payoff? By the time Men’s Health ran his story, he had lost 130 pounds, and his resting heart rate and blood pressure had dropped into healthy ranges. |
| But how does a regular paycheck cover $13,500? |
| The article doesn’t say how Matthew paid, and I have no idea. |
| Spread over five years, though, that total works out to about $225 a month before interest. |
| That’s smaller than most monthly car payments… and nobody calls a Honda impossible. |
| Back home, he kept seeing a Clínica Bíblica dietitian online. |
| Not bad for a rejection letter. |
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| Jókai Dental, Budapest |
| All-on-6 implants · March 2025 · whatclinic.com |
| ★★★★★ |
| H. Ramirez flew from the United States to Budapest for All-on-6 implants (a full arch of teeth fixed on six implants) at the clinic WhatClinic lists as Hungary Dental Implant, then rated it five stars. |
| Before booking, Ramirez compared four clinics in Hungary and picked this one because it communicated best and sent the most detailed treatment information. Coordinators Viktor and Gabor handled the logistics, and everyone on staff spoke English. |
| Oral surgeon Dr. Laszlo Damjanovich (University of Debrecen, specialist exam in dentoalveolar surgery in 2021) did the extractions and implants, which Ramirez calls quick and painless. The bill came to 9,066,078 forints, about $24,700 at the March 2025 exchange rate, and Ramirez puts the savings at 75% to 80% against US prices. Permanent teeth were due later that year. Verdict: “You couldn’t be in better hands.” |
| One caution: this is a dental clinic, not a JCI hospital, though it belongs to the Hungarian Dental Association. It averages 4.7 stars across 56 verified reviews, a few of them sharp complaints, so read them all before you book. |
| H. Ramirez, United States Verified Patient |
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| Quick Reads |
| Trend |
| Malaysia retires the cheap pitch |
| Borneo is booming. Sarawak, on the Malaysian side of the island, took in close to RM110 million in hospital revenue from foreign patients in the first half of 2026, up 21%, after healthcare travelers to the state jumped 36% to more than 104,000 in 2025. But on Monday in Kuching, Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council chief executive Suriaghandi Suppiah said a weaker Indonesian rupiah and pricier airfares mean low prices alone can’t carry the pitch anymore. His replacement: accredited hospitals, credentialed specialists and costs spelled out from day one. “They are looking for the right one,” he told the Borneo Global Meditourism Congress about families paying more. Same checklist we use. |
| Destination |
| The Philippines wants medical travelers |
| The Philippines is recruiting. At the 15th Arangkada Philippines Forum on October 9, Tourism Secretary Dita Angara-Mathay urged private investors to put money into hospitals, rehab, digital health and wellness services. The idea is one package: treatment, then rehab, with a hotel, good food and something to do nearby. As of September, the Department of Tourism’s accredited network listed 13 hospitals, 21 outpatient clinics, 10 dental clinics and 63 spas. That’s a small base. But English is an official language there, which counts for a lot when you’re describing a symptom to a nurse. This is one to watch. |
| Safety Note |
| The risky part is going home |
| Distance is the danger. Dr. David Feldmar, a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon who repairs procedures that went wrong, wrote on KevinMD on September 29 that the complications he treats usually grow after surgery, once the patient is far from the team that did the work. He points to CDC data counting 145 patients with serious complications from cosmetic procedures done while traveling, including 4 deaths. His questions before you book: what does follow-up look like in practice, who do you call once you’re home, which records leave with you, and how long should you wait before flying? Matthew kept a dietitian he could reach online. Ask for that kind of line home. |
