Your next heart surgery could well be in Bangkok — but don’t worry, it’ll be “in network.” How your health care is taking wing …

“This doesn’t look like a hospital,” says Ruben Toral, showing me around. “It feels more like a hotel or an upscale mall.” After studying the gleaming lobby of Bumrungrad International for a minute or two, I’m inclined to agree. Americans in shorts recline across from Arab couples in flowing white dishdashas and black abayas, the latter accessorized with designer handbags and sunglasses. We’re in Bangkok in August, when even the asphalt is overripe and malodorous, but the only scent inside is a faint whiff of espresso from the Starbucks in the corner.

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Bumrungrad International hospital in Bangkok is becoming a popular destination for international travelers in search of low-cost medical procedures, particularly among Americans who lack comprehensive health insurance and Europeans who are unhappy with long waiting times at home. Bumrungrad treated 450,000 foreign patients last year – more than any other hospital in the world. Ruben Toral, Bumrungrad’s marketing director, says that medical tourism will eventually lead to medical outsourcing. “Your corporation, your insurer, your government could send you [to Bumrungrad] for surgery and make significant savings.” However, the trend is creating a backlash among physicians in the West, many of who voice serious concerns about the cleanliness of Thai hospital facilities and the level competency among Thai health care professionals.

Bumrungrad Hospital offers a rhinoplasty (nose job) procedure for approximately US$2,500. The same procedure in the UK will cost about US$5,000 while in the United States will cost about US$6,000. Breast augmentation is an extremely popular procedure in the US and can range from US$5,000 to US$8,000 while the cost in the UK is about US$6,500. You can have the same procedure done at Bumrungrad Hospital for US$2,250.

Bangkok Phuket Hospital, on the island of Phuket, can perform a Heart Bypass surgery for approximately US$12,000. The price for the same procedure in the US begins at US$66,000 and can easily rise to US$150,000 and in the UK the procedure can actually cost upwards of US$200,000.

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The best part about treatment in Bangkok, Thailand is that you enjoy world-class medical advantages at a fraction of the cost in comparison with destinations like US, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Here are some examples of your medical price savings as well as some of your medical questions answered as such;

Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG) is the reason for 55.7% of hospital stays.

Next on the list is angioplasty, accounting for 48.7% of hospital stays.

And what do you save when you get treated in Bangkok, Thailand? If you come for bypass surgery, you will save over 75%, even after taking airfares and local stay into consideration.

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