The fatal abduction last week of Americans who traveled to Matamoros, Mexico to accompany a friend for a tummy tuck underlined the thriving medical tourism business south of the border.
About 1.2 US residents travel to Mexico every year for elective surgery at a reduction, in line with Medical Tourism Mexicowhich advertises that patients can save as much as 80% on a comparable procedure within the US.
That figure – which represents greater than one-third of 1 percent of the U.S. population – was echoed by Josef Woodman, general manager of Patients Abroad.
“Before the pandemic, roughly 1.2 million Americans traveled to Mexico for elective medical treatment,” Woodman told NPR Wednesday.
“Today, the market in Mexico is recovering rapidly, almost returning to pre-pandemic levels,” Woodman reportedly said.
Medical Tourism Mexico boasts that the country has “one in every of the strongest economies in Latin America” and claims that its doctors “have the knowledge, education, experience and infrastructure to offer the very best quality services.”
![Foreign patients leave Oasis of Hope Hospital in Tijuana on October 4, 2019, Baja California, Mexico. - According to the Patient Abroad organization, approximately 20 million people around the world travel for medical tourism purposes each year. (Photo: Guillermo Arias/AFP) (Photo: GUILLERMO ARIAS/AFP via Getty Images)](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/NYPICHPDPICT000007898714.jpg?w=1024)
Nevertheless, the US State Department advises against traveling to 6 Mexican states as a result of concerns about “crime and kidnapping”.
Certainly one of these states, Tamaulipas, is where Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brown were killed after being kidnapped together with two other Americans in a cartel shootout in broad daylight that was caught on camera.
The State Department can also be advising Americans to “reconsider” travel to seven other states, including Baja California, Sonora and Chihuahua, which also border the US.
U.S. residents are being warned to exercise “excessive caution” when traveling to 17 other destinations in Mexico, including Mexico City and the state of Quintana Roo, home to Caribbean resorts resembling Cancún.
The feds say that in just two of Mexico’s 31 states – Campeche and Yucatán on the Gulf of Mexico – Americans can expect to take “normal precautions” when traveling.
Some border towns – resembling Matamoros – are prime destinations for medical tourism as a result of their quick access, although they are sometimes hotbeds of cartel violence.
In Tijuana A 33-story medical facility opened last fall, touting itself as “the world’s best medical tourism facility” and a “One Stop Shop” experience only a stone’s throw from San Diego.
Despite the security risks involved, many also traveled to Mexico to get dental and orthopedic work done cheaply or to purchase prescribed drugs at a reduction.
“North American patients travel to Mexico mainly to avoid wasting 50-70% in comparison with what they’d pay within the US for elective treatment,” Woodman reportedly said.
In keeping with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, security threats aren’t just limited to the stay of a medical tourist south of the border.
![A photo posted on Twitter reportedly shows the kidnapping of four US citizens in Matamoros, Mexico. According to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico, unidentified Americans entered Matamoros, Tamaulipas, in a white minivan with North Carolina license plates on March 3 and came under fire shortly afterwards.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/NYPICHPDPICT000007780068-5.jpg?w=960)
Flying in a pressurized aircraft cabin could cause complications after surgery, and your possibilities of “acquiring antibiotic-resistant infections” could increase, the agency warned.
“Medical tourists must also remember that drugs and medical products and devices utilized in other countries might not be subject to the identical regulatory scrutiny and oversight as in the USA.” CDC website reads.
Despite warnings, greater than 90% of those crossing the border into California for medical services said they believed health care services in Mexico were of the identical or higher quality than within the US and had no plans to remain home through procedures in the long run.
![View of doctors performing bariatric surgery at Oasis of Hope Hospital in Tijuana on October 4, 2019, Baja California State, Mexico. - According to the Patient Abroad organization, approximately 20 million people around the world travel for medical tourism purposes each year. (Photo: Guillermo Arias/AFP) (Photo: GUILLERMO ARIAS/AFP via Getty Images)](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/NYPICHPDPICT000007898713.jpg?w=1024)
The Journal of the American Association of Pharmacists interviewed 427 medical tourists for a 2020 research article. It found that the common profile of a medical tourist was a 65-year-old who earned between $25,001 and $50,000 per 12 months. The study showed that the overwhelming majority of them were motivated by saving money.
Mexico’s homicide rate is 4 times that of the US at 28 per 100,000, but only 0.26 per 100,000 Americans who visited the country in 2021 were murdered, reports NewsNation.
In that pandemic-plagued 12 months – the last 12 months the State Department had complete statistics – 75 Americans were murdered in Mexico, a minuscule percentage of Mexico’s 29 million visitors.
Despite high-profile incidents of violence against Americans and warnings from Washington, Mexico stays by far the preferred international destination for US residents, attracting well over twice as many tourists as Canada.
In 2019, a 12 months before the COVID-19 pandemic, about 40 million Americans visited them. – informed the National Travel and Tourism Office.