Uninsured Americans
Traveling to Panama for
Health Care
PANAMA CITY, Panama -
Americans are traveling
abroad for medical care
like never before and
now looking to Panama as
a destination to cure
their insurance woes,
high prices and delays
for treatment back home.
Panama touts
U.S.-trained doctors,
high-tech hospitals and
costs far below U.S.
rates to attract
Americans for services
from dental implants to
hip replacements. It
also promotes its
location near U.S.
shores.
"In the beginning of
medical tourism,
Americans went to
distant places like
Thailand and India. It
seems logical the next
step would be Latin
America — closer to the
United States and more
similar in culture,"
said Panamanian dentist
Richard Ford, who
studied at Louisiana
State University and
leads a medical tourism
group, Pana-Health.
So far, Panama attracts
only hundreds of U.S.
patients a year, doctors
estimate, but the
potential for growth is
huge.
With roughly 47 million
Americans lacking health
insurance, millions more
underinsured and U.S.
health care costs
skyrocketing, many can
no longer afford medical
care in the United
States.
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