--- title: "What Healthcare Abroad Actually Costs (Real Bills) | Addicted to ROI" description: "A $107 specialist scan, a $20 clinic visit, a $900 three-night hospital stay. Real medical bills from six countries, from a family abroad months every year." lang: en json-ld: | [ { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://addictedtoroi.com/#organization", "name": "Addicted to ROI", "url": "https://addictedtoroi.com", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://addictedtoroi.com/images/logo.png" }, "description": "Live your best life funded by your investments. Real estate, taxes, travel, and business, by Jennifer Beadles.", "founder": { "@id": "https://addictedtoroi.com/#jennifer" }, "sameAs": [ "https://agentsinvest.com", "https://doorprofit.com", "https://repstime.com", "https://strhours.com", "https://kidspayroll.com", "https://rentstager.com" ] }, { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://addictedtoroi.com/#website", "url": "https://addictedtoroi.com", "name": "Addicted to ROI", "publisher": { "@id": "https://addictedtoroi.com/#organization" }, "potentialAction": { "@type": "SearchAction", "target": { "@type": "EntryPoint", "urlTemplate": "https://addictedtoroi.com/blog/?q={search_term_string}" }, "query-input": "required name=search_term_string" } }, { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Person", "@id": "https://addictedtoroi.com/#jennifer", "name": "Jennifer Beadles", "url": "https://addictedtoroi.com/about/", "jobTitle": "Founder, Addicted to ROI", "description": "Real estate investor and founder of Addicted to ROI. Built an 8-figure rental portfolio across multiple states and teaches everyday investors how to build passive income.", "worksFor": { "@id": "https://addictedtoroi.com/#organization" }, "sameAs": [ "https://agentsinvest.com", "https://doorprofit.com", "https://repstime.com", "https://strhours.com", "https://kidspayroll.com", "https://rentstager.com" ] }, { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Article", "mainEntityOfPage": { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://addictedtoroi.com/blog/healthcare-abroad/" }, "headline": "What Healthcare Abroad Actually Costs (Real Bills)", "description": "A $107 specialist scan, a $20 clinic visit, a $900 three-night hospital stay. Real medical bills from six countries, from a family abroad months every year.", "image": "https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1519494026892-80bbd2d6fd0d?w=800&q=80", "datePublished": "2026-07-08", "dateModified": "2026-07-08", "author": { "@id": "https://addictedtoroi.com/#jennifer" }, "publisher": { "@id": "https://addictedtoroi.com/#organization" }, "speakable": { "@type": "SpeakableSpecification", "cssSelector": [ ".tldr-answer", "h1" ] } }, { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://addictedtoroi.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Blog", "item": "https://addictedtoroi.com/blog" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Lifestyle", "item": "https://addictedtoroi.com/blog?category=lifestyle" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "What Healthcare Abroad Actually Costs (Real Bills)", "item": "https://addictedtoroi.com/blog/healthcare-abroad/" } ] }, { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "FAQPage", "mainEntity": [ { "@type": "Question", "name": "Is healthcare abroad safe and good quality?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "In private hospitals and clinics across much of Asia, Latin America, and Europe, care quality is comparable to the US, often with same-day access and no referral chain. Major international hospitals publish cash prices and serve foreign patients routinely." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "How much does travel medical insurance cost for a family?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Nomad-style travel medical plans run roughly $50 to $70 per adult per month with deductibles around $250, and kids are often included on a parent's plan. Full worldwide health plans that exclude US coverage can run around $90 a month." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "What does a doctor visit cost abroad?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "From our family's actual bills: about $20 in Costa Rica, $50 in Singapore ($30 doctor plus $20 medicine), around $100 for an MRI plus specialists in Bangkok, and $107 for a specialist anatomy scan in Mexico. Cash, walk-in, same day." } } ] } ] --- [![Addicted to ROI](/images/logo.png)](/) [Travel](/pillars/travel/)[Real Estate](/pillars/real-estate/)[Tax Savings](/pillars/tax-savings/)[Business](/pillars/business/)[Paths](/paths/)[Blog](/blog/)[Tools](/tools/)[Apps](/software/)[About](/about/) [Login](https://members.addictedtoroi.com/) Subscribe [Travel](/pillars/travel/)[Real Estate](/pillars/real-estate/)[Tax Savings](/pillars/tax-savings/)[Business](/pillars/business/)[Paths](/paths/)[Blog](/blog/)[Tools](/tools/)[Apps](/software/)[About](/about/)[Login](https://members.addictedtoroi.com/) Contents 1. [01 Our family's receipts ](#our-familys-receipts) 2. [02 The bills that made believers out of us ](#the-bills-that-made-believers-out-of-us) 3. [03 The insurance layer ](#the-insurance-layer) 4. [04 How to use this ](#how-to-use-this) [Home](/)/ [Blog](/blog/)/ [Travel](/pillars/travel/) Lifestyle # What Healthcare Abroad Actually Costs (Real Bills) A $107 specialist scan, a $20 clinic visit, a $900 three-night hospital stay. Real medical bills from six countries, from a family that travels abroad for months every year. July 8, 2026 7 min read Contents 1. [01\. Our family's receipts](#our-familys-receipts) 2. [02\. The bills that made believers out of us](#the-bills-that-made-believers-out-of-us) 3. [03\. The insurance layer](#the-insurance-layer) 4. [04\. How to use this](#how-to-use-this) tl;dr Care abroad is often excellent and cheap. A $50 clinic visit in Singapore, a $107 specialist scan in Mexico, a three-night hospital stay in Chile for about $900. Nomad travel medical insurance runs $50 to $70 per adult a month, and a full worldwide plan that excludes the US costs around $90 a month. The question behind the question, whenever someone asks about long-term travel with kids, is usually healthcare. What happens if someone gets sick over there? After years of traveling 3 to 4 months annually with children, here is our honest answer: someone always gets sick, we have used doctors and hospitals on multiple continents, and the care has been excellent at prices that sound like typos. These are real bills. ## Our family's receipts - Singapore: our daughter got sick, so we used the walk-in clinic at the mall. $30 for the doctor, $20 for the medicine, $50 total. - Costa Rica: sick kid again, walk-in clinic, about $20. - Thailand: my husband got an MRI plus specialist visits at Bumrungrad International in Bangkok, one of the best hospitals in Asia, for roughly $100 all in. - Mexico: while pregnant with Ryker, I had an anatomy scan with a fetal specialist at a hospital. It took about an hour and a half and was the most thorough exam I have ever had, for $107 cash. Back in the US, my OB insisted on redoing the same scan for $900, performed by a tech, with a separate appointment to have a doctor interpret it. ## The bills that made believers out of us A family from our community spent 11 months abroad and stress-tested the system harder than we ever have. Mom slipped off a pull-up bar in Chile and broke her wrist. The first clinic did the doctor visit, X-rays, and cast completely free. A second opinion at the private clinic locals consider "the expensive one" cost $35 for the doctor and $35 for X-rays, new cast included, $70 total. The follow-up in Peru weeks later (cast off, new X-rays, splint) ran $100 to $150. Their daughter caught influenza A and, unable to hold down liquids, needed an ambulance and three nights on IV fluids in a Chilean hospital. Total bill: about $900 for the hospital, plus roughly $250 for the ambulance and the initial clinic. In the US, a pediatric ER admission with a three-night stay would plausibly start at $15,000 to $20,000. Three nights in the hospital for $900. Same family, back in the US: dad broke a bone in his hand, and spent a week and a half unable to get any orthopedist to see him. The scheduling system offered a primary care appointment months out, by which point the bone would have healed however it pleased. The care gap between "world class medicine" and "medicine you can actually access" is not the direction Americans assume. ## The insurance layer For trips, we use SafetyWing. Comparable nomad medical plans run about $50 to $70 per adult monthly with a $250 deductible. Here is the funny part: at these prices, the insurance rarely activates. The $70 cast and the $100 MRI never hit the deductible. The one time it mattered, the $900 hospitalization, it worked exactly as designed. For our long trips of 4 to 6 months, we cancel US coverage entirely and carry a $90 a month worldwide plan that covers everything except the US. Read that sentence again: the only country the affordable global health plan will not touch is ours. ## How to use this Practical rules if you are new to care abroad. In most of the world you walk in without a referral and see a doctor the same day. Private hospitals in major cities (the Bangkok, Singapore, and Mexico City tier) publish cash prices and cater to international patients. Pharmacies dispense many medications over the counter that require prescriptions in the US, at a fraction of the price. And your travel medical policy's deductible is often higher than the entire bill, so keep receipts but expect to pay cash and move on. None of this is a substitute for insurance or for judgment. It is a correction to the fear that keeps families home. The healthcare question should not stop your [first mini-retirement](/blog/first-mini-retirement/). If anything, it is a reason to go. _Medical costs and access vary by country and situation, and this is our family's experience, not medical advice. Carry travel medical insurance and know where the good hospitals are before you need one._ Addicted to ROI is education and community, not financial or tax advice. Talk to a qualified professional before making investment or tax decisions. ![Jennifer Beadles](/images/founders.jpg) Jennifer Beadles Real estate entrepreneur with 17 years of hands-on investing experience. Built an 8-figure rental portfolio across multiple states and has helped thousands of investors build passive income through the Addicted to ROI community. Before you close the tab ## Get the next one in your inbox. One email per new article, the day it goes up. No wall, no spam, unsubscribe in a click. [Subscribe, free →](/newsletter/)[Run a deal in the calculator](/tools/deal-analysis-calculator/) Read next [ ![Business Hours vs. Family Hours: Investing With Your Spouse Without Killing the Marriage](/images/about-couple-embrace.jpg) Lifestyle ### Business Hours vs. Family Hours: Investing With Your Spouse Without Killing the Marriage 7 min read → ](/blog/spouse-business-boundaries/)[ ![The Award Flight Playbook: Never Search From Your Home Airport](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1569154941061-e231b4725ef1?w=800&q=80) Lifestyle ### The Award Flight Playbook: Never Search From Your Home Airport 7 min read → ](/blog/award-flights/)[ ![How to Plan Your First Mini-Retirement (Start With One Month)](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1488646953014-85cb44e25828?w=800&q=80) Lifestyle ### How to Plan Your First Mini-Retirement (Start With One Month) 8 min read → ](/blog/first-mini-retirement/) If you like this ## Read these next Hand-picked to go deeper on travel. [![Business Hours vs. Family Hours: Investing With Your Spouse Without Killing the Marriage](/images/about-couple-embrace.jpg) Travel ### Business Hours vs. Family Hours: Investing With Your Spouse Without Killing the Marriage 7 min read](/blog/spouse-business-boundaries/) [![The Award Flight Playbook: Never Search From Your Home Airport](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1569154941061-e231b4725ef1?w=800&q=80) Travel ### The Award Flight Playbook: Never Search From Your Home Airport 7 min read](/blog/award-flights/) [![How to Plan Your First Mini-Retirement (Start With One Month)](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1488646953014-85cb44e25828?w=800&q=80) Travel ### How to Plan Your First Mini-Retirement (Start With One Month) 8 min read](/blog/first-mini-retirement/) [![What We Do With Our House, Job, and Phone for 3 Months Abroad](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1502920917128-1aa500764cbd?w=800&q=80) Travel ### What We Do With Our House, Job, and Phone for 3 Months Abroad 8 min read ](/blog/leave-for-3-months/) Off to go build something. Go build yours.  ~ Jennifer © 2026 Addicted to ROI. Education and community, not financial or tax advice. [Contact Us](/contact/) · [Privacy Policy](/privacy/) · [Terms and Conditions](/terms/) Explore: [Travel](/pillars/travel/) · [Real Estate](/pillars/real-estate/) · [Tax Savings](/pillars/tax-savings/) · [Business](/pillars/business/) Free tools: [Deal Analysis Calculator](/tools/deal-analysis-calculator/) · [Cost Segregation Calculator](/cost-seg-calculator/) · [Average Stay Calculator](/average-stay-calculator/) · [Vehicle Deduction Calculator](/vehicle-deduction-calculator/) · [Free Downloads](/resources-downloads/) [Agents Invest](https://agentsinvest.com) · [DoorProfit](https://doorprofit.com) · [REPS Time](https://repstime.com) · [STR Loophole](https://strhours.com) · [Kids Payroll](https://kidspayroll.com) · [RentStager](https://rentstager.com)