ARGENTINA: Devaluation Boosts Inflow of ‘Health Tourists’

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Aug 5 2002 (IPS) - The collapse of the Argentine peso has fuelled the inflow of “health tourists” from other Latin American countries, as well as Latino patients from the United States, seeking low-cost, high-quality medical procedures, which has partly compensated for the drop in internal demand.

The cost of treatments like neurological rehabilitation, cardiovascular surgery, assisted fertilisation techniques, and cosmetic surgery has plunged due to the 73 percent depreciation of the Argentine peso in relation to the dollar so far this year.

In the midst of this Southern Cone country’s worst economic and social crisis ever, which peaked in late December when two governments toppled in less than two weeks, private medical institutions offering top-notch services have found a way to compensate for the drop in the number of Argentine patients.

The Foundation for the Fight against Childhood Neurological Diseases inaugurated a high-tech centre offering rehabilitation for children and adults in December, just before the government of President Fernando de la Rúa fell.

The slide of the peso, which began in January, led the foundation to reorient its services towards clientele from other Latin American nations.

In its new headquarters in the town of Escobar, 70 kms from the capital, the foundation is now challenging the leadership of Cuba and the United States as providers of rehabilitation for brain surgery and stroke patients in the region, because it can compete in terms of quality as well as prices.

In Cuba and the United States, the price of such treatment ranges from 10,000 to 45,000 dollars. But Argentina is now offering rehabilitation services for just 4,500 dollars, which covers the price of nearby lodging with a private bathroom for family members.

The Favoloro Foundation – set up by prestigious surgeon René Favaloro (1923-2000) to treat cardiovascular patients – also began to explore the broader Latin American market. But it soon began to receive requests for information from patients in Europe, where the quality of the foundation’s services is known.

In addition, centres dedicated to assisted fertilisation techniques have begun to publicise their services over the Internet, to draw patients from abroad.

The proportion of foreigners asking for information about the treatments offered rose 50 percent this year, María Fernanda Barro, in charge of institutional relations at Halitus, a fertilisation clinic, told IPS.

The cost of the procedure, 3,500 Argentine pesos, is now worth less than 1,000 dollars, compared to 3,500 dollars up to December, before the currency board pegging the peso to the dollar was scrapped in January.

Although the cost was already significantly lower than in the United States, where it runs to at least 10,000 dollars, the gap has grown even wider with the devaluation of the Argentine peso, said Barro.

For the past three years, Halitus has offered prospective patients at home and abroad a convenient on-line service to send in their clinical histories to obtain a second opinion.

The clinic then outlines the first part of the treatment, which can be carried out in Argentina or in the patients’ home country. That means the patient or the couple can fly to Buenos Aires for just 10 to 15 days for the final part of the treatment.

Other institutions offer complete packages for “health tourists,” which include the medical treatment, hotel expenses and arrangements, and outings to make the patients’ stay more pleasant.

Since fertilisation procedures are carried out in the morning and patients only have to stay in the clinic or hospital for a couple of hours a day, afternoons and evenings are free for visiting key tourist attractions in Buenos Aires.

The Centre of Studies in Gynecology and Reproduction opened an office in Miami, Florida, making it the first Argentine clinic of its kind to cater to Latino couples with sterility problems, who are in search of lower-cost treatment plans.

Hugo Zimmerman and Marcela Gutiérrez, Argentinians living in Miami, said they were “drawn by the prices.”

But Zimmerman said they were also won over “by the emotional support we found in Argentina, which is harder to find in Miami or New York.”

The language barrier made Gutiérrez reluctant to undergo such treatment in the United States. “I was afraid I would not always fully understand what they were going to do to me,” a now-happily pregnant Gutiérrez told a local media outlet in Argentina.

The combination of quality and low prices also tempts those who are interested in cosmetic surgery.

A Chilean newspaper, La Tercera, reported in June that a large number of people seeking cosmetic surgery were heading across the border to Argentina.

The B&S clinic in the western Argentine province of Mendoza, on the border with Chile, said demand from Chilean patients had doubled since May, while the number of patients from Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela had also increased.

Argentina has always drawn foreign clientele seeking cosmetic surgery due to the high quality of the services offered. But the peso’s slump has given the business an extra boost.

Plastic surgery on the abdomen, waistline, breasts and buttocks costs 5,000 dollars in Chile, and is performed under general anesthesia. In Argentina, the cost runs as low as 2,000 dollars, and the surgery is generally carried out under local anesthesia.