Should you leave the country for your next doctor’s appointment?

Would you leave the U.S. for a doctor’s appointment if it meant you could save thousands of dollars?

The CDC estimates that millions of Americans travel abroad for medical care each year. Podcast host TK Dutes is one of them: a few years ago, she traveled to Mexico City for a root canal that cost her only $300, and since then Dutes has been going back there for most of her healthcare needs. This week on the show, host Reema Khrais speaks with Dutes and Dr. Alok Patel, a pediatric hospitalist and medical journalist, to weigh the risks and rewards of medical tourism.

In Dr. Patel’s opinion, part of the problem is the shortcomings of American healthcare system, including privatization and consolidation of hospitals, administrative inefficiencies, insurance negotiations, and the lack of universal healthcare. “Not only is healthcare expensive because we have a lot of bloat in healthcare, but we also have no price transparency in healthcare either,” he explained.

A few takeaways from this episode:

• Great doctors practice all over the world. Dutes and Dr. Patel both emphasized that stereotypes and misinformation shouldn’t hold you back from finding high quality, affordable care. “There are phenomenal healthcare professionals everywhere,” said Dr. Patel. “If you're with people who can relate to you, empathize with you, understand your culture, understand your language, even empathize, and they shut up and listen, I think that makes a big difference with care and with continuity and with healing ultimately.”

• If you have a primary care doctor in the U.S., tell them about your plans. They can help you assess whether a procedure is safe to do abroad or should happen closer to home. “Make sure you’re transparent about what you want to do so that you have some type of track record, you have recommendations about travel, about how long you should stay after your procedure, whatever it may be,” said Dr. Patel. “But also, if you need any travel vaccines or if there's any specific concerns about the destination you're going to.”

• For certain procedures, medical tourism isn’t a good idea. Dr. Patel recommends avoiding travel for acute illnesses. “If someone needed a cardiac valve repair, for example, or something that was really serious, and a cardiac surgeon in the United States said, ‘Hey, you're really risking it if you fly,’ that’s a situation where I’d say don’t do it."

• Do your due diligence before making an appointment. Make sure your provider is accredited and check that your provider is affiliated with a local emergency room, in case of complications. “Look at wherever you're going and make sure they have emergency preparedness: they've got an ICU, they have an urgent care, they have a team in case something goes wrong,” advised Dr. Patel.

Also in this episode, another edition of “Alice Gets Her Life Together,” where producer Alice Wilder gets her finances in order one challenge at a time. This month, she’s focusing on expense tracking, with help from executive functioning coach Kate Sage.

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