Regional Stock Reports

There are millions of pensioners and digital nomads choosing to live in Mexico and other countries around the world. Usually they do so because the cost of living is significantly cheaper than it is back in the home countries, places like the United States or the United Kingdom, but there is also another reason that so many people choose to live abroad, and that is medical tourism. Using Mexico as an example, the cost of access to the universal system is around $250 per year at the maximum, but it allows you free medicine, lab tests, dental visits and work, eye tests and glasses plus much more, without any limits. And since the doctors in Mexico studied in the United States and European Union, they are just as educated as any other doctor, which means they have the same global standards.

But medical tourism goes beyond simply saving on your annual cost for access to the system. When you live in Mexico you also have the benefit of major procedures costing a fraction of what they would in the United States. An article written by Hilary Hylton for Time.com showed that a hip replacement that costs as much as $63,000 in the United States only costs $12,000 in Mexico, while a coronary bypass surgery that costs upwards of $150,000 in the United States averages around $21,000 in Mexico. When you start looking at the price difference, it suddenly becomes very clear why so many expats and pensioners are living in this Latin mega country.

The benefits of medical tourism apply to more than just those people who live in Mexico. One of the great benefits of having access to global pools of information via the Internet is that digital nomads and pensioners can ignore the propaganda of their home medias and discover that superior levels of care exist outside of the U.S., but for pennies in comparison. According to The Archives of Internal Medicine, Canada is one of those examples, where the cost of heart surgery is 83% less than in the States, but has the same level of care and precision. Bulgaria costs around $50 per year for the universal system, while Colombia is around the same as Mexico, and Time.com has another article on the subject by Sarah Tung discussing the fact that while a liver transplant in the U.S. will cost you $300,000, you can find the same procedure in Taiwan for $91,000.

There is no reason anyone should be paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for procedures when they can be performed in another country for a fraction of the price. For this reason, more and more people each year are starting to utilize medical tourism, especially within the expat community of traveling professionals who work and live abroad. But it’s not merely travelers who can take advantage of the cheap cost of medical care on a global level. For example, retirees who live in Mexico can also take advantage of the lowered cost of medical care, especially in comparison to the United States where it is estimated that between the age of 65 and 80 a single individual will spend between $300,000 and a whopping $1,000,000 in medical fees when you take into consideration retirement homes.

The most important thing to understand is that the medical tourism industry is growing at a rapid pace into a multi-billion dollar giant. Digital nomads are not the only people taking advantage of this fact, as there are numerous pensioners choosing to live in Mexico and other countries to get away from the oppressive cost of living and healthcare in the United States. Universal healthcare is a global standard that exists in almost every country, and when you combine that with first-class service and care, expats have more reasons than every to look abroad for their healthcare needs.

For more information on medical tourism in countries around the world, check out articles by other expats who are already utilizing medical tourism abroad.

These days, the American Dream is often termed the American Nightmare. Hellish hours are the consistent norm as of 2012, with an estimated 60% of the population of the United States working at minimum of 40 hours per week, 50 weeks per year just to cover their basic cost of living. For the most part, people are living paycheck to paycheck, barely skimming by and having just enough to pay their basics. In some cases, people are choosing to juggle their bills, paying something late this month and then switching something else the following month so they can just manage to squeeze by. For these 60% who are living on borrowed money, there is no existence outside of work. Instead, there is only the endless treadmill grind if 40 hour work weeks and mandatory overtime until you are finally old enough to be “allowed” to call it quits at the age of 65.

For many, there is nothing to look forward to other than a long, dark tunnel of never-ending tedium, working the same eight to ten hour shifts day in, day out, with maybe Sundays off, over a period of 40+ years until they are finally 65 years old and “allowed” to retire. These are the average, everyday living conditions of people in the United States.

This is the American Dream as it exists today. And it is because of this nightmare reality that more and more web-savvy individuals are looking towards the borders beyond the United States for their next Big Break. For these intelligent few, the horizons beyond are beckoning with the lure of a location independent lifestyle as an international expat, roaming the planet while working on the Internet and taking advantage of the lowered cost of living in countries around the world. This allows them to bypass the debt and credit necessities of living back home and instead transport themselves into the world of debt-free living where their money is going three to four timers farther than it ever would in their home country.

Imagine having $1,000 a month actually be worth the same as $3,000 per month, or even $4,000 per month. That is the reason so many expats are exploring the digital nomad lifestyle, because when you take your business to a country like Bulgaria or Thailand, Mexico or Colombia, your dollars are worth three to four times what they are back in the United States. As long as you have an Internet connection and some form of digital income (such as PayPal or direct bank deposits) you can live as an expat, which means pensioners or any type of freelancer or individual working on the Internet can transition over, out of the brick-and-mortar and into the full-time traveler life.

Best of all, the digital nomad lifestyle is incredibly easy to transition into. Most governments only require that you provide proof of around $1,000 per month of income, either from a pension or some other form of monthly deposit into your bank account, such as a salary or freelance income. And, since most countries only have a couple of weeks of waiting for your application to go through, you can be pursuing the location independent dream within just a few short weeks. While your neighbors and friends back home might still be stuck on the hamster wheel grinding out 40 hour work weeks for a salary that barely breaks even, you can be location independent enjoying the freedom of the digital nomad lifestyle where a mere $1,000 a month gives you an upper middle class existence on par with what $4,000 a month back home would give you.

For more information on living as an international expat in countries around the world, check out articles by other expats who are already living the dream life.