Before Diane Paul flew to Cuba in October for knee surgery, she had to make a trip to her local video store. Choice Medical Services, the Winnipeg-based company that arranged the trip for the 57-year-old Haligonian, had recommended that she watch Michael Moore's Sicko.
The 2007 documentary depicts the Cuban health-care system as providing a level of treatment far superior to that available to most people in the U.S. The movie has helped put the Caribbean nation on the map for medical tourists such as Paul, who was unwilling to wait a year to have the surgery at home.
According to one estimate, as many as 300,000 Canadians travel abroad each year for medical or dental procedures - most of them, like Paul, frustrated by the long wait times at Canadian hospitals.
Of course, not every country is fortunate enough to be given the star treatment by an Academy Award-winning filmmaker.
But thanks to the Internet, a handful of up-and-coming medical-tourism destinations are luring patients away from traditional destinations such as India and Thailand.
"It's 100 per cent attributable to the Internet," says Renee Stephano, general counsel for the U.S.-based Medical Tourism Association and editor of the Medical Tourism Magazine. "You would not be seeing patients travelling abroad unless they could do research online."
Jeff Schult, author of Beauty from Afar: A Medical Tourist's Guide to Affordable and Quality Cosmetic Care Outside the U.S., says people who go to other countries for medical procedures choose destinations based on three criteria: cost, closeness and culture.
"If you can choose where you are going to know the language, or you have relatives there or you've always wanted to go there, that's where you are going to choose," Schult says.
CUBA
That's basically how Paul chose Cuba for her surgery. She researched other countries in which to have the procedure, but she did not want to venture too far from home.
"I would love to see India. I would love to see Thailand. But I chose Cuba, not because I really wanted to see it, it was just close for me," she said.
In fact, seizing on its proximity to Canada, Cuba has partnered with Choice Medical Services to attract more medical tourists.
Cuba has also partnered with similar firms in Germany and Spain, cracking into the Western market by highlighting its excellent health-care system and low cost of care. According to Choice Medical Services, a hip replacement in Cuba costs about $10,000, compared with $39,000 in the U.S.
Last year, the Caribbean nation hosted nearly 20,000 medical tourists, according to Cubanacan Tourism and Health, the umbrella organization that promotes Cuba's health tourism facilities.
And Schult says Sicko has significantly raised Cuba's profile for U.S. residents. "It's definitely put Cuba on the map for medical tourists here."
COSTA RICA
Costa Rica has been a popular destination for dental and cosmetic surgery since the early 1980s. Now, Schult says, "there are a number of hospitals there that are seeking to capitalize on the country's reputation as a medical-tourism destination."
Two hospitals in particular, Clinica Biblica and CIMA Hospital, are leading the charge. Clinica Biblica is working on a plan to dedicate an entire wing for international patients.
While the country's pristine beaches may be the biggest draw for most tourists, for people seeking medical treatment, Costa Rica's proximity to North America and its relatively cheap cost of care are the main draws.
The price of medical procedures there tends to be 40 to 70 per cent less than what you would pay in North America, Stephano says.
Those benefits are appealing to medical tourists. According to Costa Rica's Tourism Bureau, the number of visitors coming for medical treatment has doubled since 2003.
Its universal health-care system provides a range of services. The government runs 30 hospitals and 250 clinics, and the country is now becoming known for procedures such as back or spinal surgeries and knee and hip replacements.
PORTUGAL AND SPAIN
"Until the beginning of this year, medical tourism to the Iberian Peninsula mainly consisted of people going to Barcelona for cosmetic and dental surgery, as well as people seeking treatment in Mallorca," says David Hancock, author of The Complete Medical Tourist.
