Ever wonder why so many US citizens are seeking preventive health care in other countries, particularly in Colombia? You might have something in common with these medical tourists.
You meticulously prepare for your annual examination, only to be met by a physician who’s in a rush, dismissive, and blames any health concerns you have on stress. You leave the appointment feeling frustrated as your efforts to be proactive about your health get shut down and your questions are left unanswered. This is the experience of many patients dealing with conditions like spinal CSF leaks, chronic pain, or thyroid dysfunction.
Even patients wanting peace of mind after a car accident with some persistent mild back pain report to us a lack of physical evaluations and the physician claiming lack of time to take the reported complaint seriously while launching into a dehumanizing critique on the patients’ weight, failing to recognize that weight can be a symptom rather than a root cause for many conditions.
If a patient has hypothyroidism due to undiagnosed iodine excess and has back pain preventing mobility due to a car accident, ignoring all this to focus only on the patient’s weight damages the physician-patient relationship. Fears permeate social media, where posts from women in the US report reluctance to visit doctors as these women anticipate they will be told that their conditions are psychosomatic.
This experience is the primary reason why some US citizens with the means to do so are seeking preventive health care in other countries like Colombia. It isn’t an attempt to skip lines to get access to procedures; it’s a search for a healthcare experience that values preventive and comprehensive care, along with positive patient relationships.
Despite having some of the most advanced medical technology in the world, the US healthcare system often creates massive barriers to basic preventative care. For example, the desire for basic services like a simple blood panel to check for vitamin deficiencies or a scan to investigate the cause of a patient’s persistent pain is frequently met with resistance.
Doctors, under extensive administrative pressure to keep appointments short and reduce paperwork outside of billable encounters, often gatekeep access to testing. These doctors may claim that the patient's insurance providers won’t cover items or that finding an abnormality will only increase the patient’s anxiety instead of recognizing the importance of finding and addressing an abnormality in advance to prevent additional health problems from developing.
This creates a dismissive healthcare culture, where patients (particularly women and those with complex, chronic issues) are misdiagnosed or told their symptoms are psychosomatic.
Countless individuals have stories of being shuffled through psychiatry for years, only to later discover a tangible neurological or physiological condition through the very tests they initially begged for. The system isn't just broken; it's exhausting to deal with.
You’re left to act as your own project manager, coordinating between disjointed specialists and begging for lab tests, all while paying exorbitant costs for the privilege of being ignored.
Colombia has emerged as a popular destination for a growing number of US citizens seeking a better alternative for healthcare services. It isn’t just the significantly lower costs of health care in Colombia that draws them toward the South American country; it’s the Colombian’s completely different approach to healthcare philosophy—one that’s rooted in a relational culture. Many South Americans, such as Argentinians and Colombians, take pride in their respective countries’ humanized rather than medicalized healthcare culture as they term these two approaches.
Patient-doctor relationships are paramount in Colombia where many public health studies in the country review underlying causes for breakdowns in communications to focus on improvement. Especially in the private sector of the dual-system public/private structure in Colombia, appointments are often longer than in the US, allowing doctors to listen and validate concerns, and work with patients to find solutions. There’s a greater focus on comprehensive care where nutritional counseling, lifestyle assessments, and preventive diagnostics fit into the larger picture of working with the patient, with the expectation of an ongoing professional relationship, moving toward improvement.
You aren't just a number on a chart; you're a person with questions and concerns. This empathetic, thorough approach is a breath of fresh air for US citizens accustomed to dismissive, 15-minute, symptom-focused visits.
This is where Colombia’s healthcare model gets exciting. In private care for medical tourists, Colombia is increasingly offering more and more sectors within holistic health care packages for patients seeking a more relational approach to healthcare. Instead of spending weeks or months navigating the US system to get a physical exam, bloodwork, cardiology check-up, and nutrition counseling, you can get it all done in a matter of days at a dedicated wellness resort. As medical tourism is often associated with cosmetic procedures, some Colombian resorts instead term traveling for holistic preventive healthcare as wellness tourism.
Take, for example, retreats like Casa Coya in Colombia. These aren't just places you go for yoga and juice cleanses. They provide comprehensive wellness experiences that include medical services like advanced blood panels, imaging tests, consultations with specialists, and personalized healthcare plans—all under one roof. Other notable resorts in Colombia include The Biozentrum, Spa Medical Resort, and Hotel Dann Carlton Belfort Medellín.
This eliminates the single most significant source of friction that patients in the US complain about: the administrative runaround. Patients won’t have to deal with being transferred in an endless loop or having to pester physicians to get lab tests ordered. Your path to wellness is mapped out and managed for you at these resorts.
Another critical differentiator between the US healthcare system and Colombian wellness resorts is the sense of community that patients experience. Patients often find solace in online support groups in the US, which, while helpful, can become echo chambers of shared trauma from medical gaslighting. The community forms around the struggle.
In contrast, the Colombian wellness tourism model fosters a positive community. You're surrounded by like-minded individuals focused on optimizing their health and well-being. This creates a supportive environment where you can share experiences and focus on moving forward, not just rehashing past frustrations. The brain space freed from no longer having to fight the system can finally be dedicated to getting better.
Let's talk numbers. The cost difference for medical treatments in the US and Colombia is staggering. In the US, a full executive physical with advanced diagnostics can easily run into the tens of thousands of dollars, much of which may not be covered by insurance if deemed "not medically necessary."
In Colombia, that same package (including imaging, a full suite of lab work, specialist consultations, and luxury accommodations) often costs a fraction of the price.
When you factor in the airfare and a stay at a beautiful resort, the total investment for a life-changing healthcare experience might still be less than your out-of-pocket cost for an MRI back home.
Medical tourism is not typically for emergency care but rather for proactive, planned procedures from dental to cosmetic; traveling to access a holistic approach to preventive medicine is now being rebranded as wellness tourism. It’s an increasingly savvy choice for individuals with the resources who are tired of being told "no" when they ask doctors to be thorough. It's for anyone who believes their health deserves more than a rushed appointment and a patronizing pat on the head.
As with any type of medical or wellness tourism, patients should look for word-of-mouth references from other patients and explore the potential risks, as some countries have less oversight and lower education requirements in certain areas of care.
However, our primary goal in this article is to raise awareness among US readers that medical tourism is not only for cosmetic procedures, as is the stereotype. Instead, as the Colombian wellness tourism market demonstrates by attracting foreigners to the country, people are willing to invest in and travel for comprehensive and considerate care in a streamlined format.
There are several US direct primary care physicians who post endlessly on LinkedIn about insurance being the bad guy while bragging that they convince their cash-paying patients who requested lab work that this lab work is unnecessary and would just cause anxiety if there are any abnormalities. Not only can this message be harmful for patients trying to be proactive due to improper patient education by the physician, but this behavior demonstrates why the cash market for healthcare in the US still does not give the same bang per buck in terms of the physician-patient relationship that the dollar carries in other countries where patients’ complaints are more likely to be taken seriously.
Many US patients believe we have the best healthcare system within our borders, but this is not the case, based on many objective metrics. We provide patients with examples of the strengths and weaknesses of healthcare systems internationally to explain how these models can give US patients hope and examples when self-advocating.
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