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Chapter 1: What are the hidden dangers of medical tourism?
Welcome to Skeptical Sunday. I'm your host, Jordan Harbinger. Today I'm here with Skeptical Sunday co-host, writer, and researcher Nick Pell. On the Jordan Harbinger Show, we decode the stories, secrets, and skills of the world's most fascinating people and turn their wisdom into practical advice that you can use to impact your own life and those around you.
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Chapter 2: Why do medical tourism brokers prioritize profit over patient safety?
Today on the show, you might have seen episodes of Botched where Dr. Dubrow and Dr. Nassif have to piece somebody back together after a bargain surgery went south. In fact, a contributor in a way of our own show had to deal with that at one point. We'll get into that later. Usually that story starts with a flight to another country and a price tag that seemed a little bit too good to pass up.
On today's Skeptical Sunday, we're talking about medical tourism. On the surface, it's the ultimate life hack, right? You fly to Turkey, you fly to Mexico, you get a Brazilian butt lift or a new set of veneers for 70% off, and you recover on a beach somewhere, maybe on your stomach if you got the BBL. But it's the dream sold by influencers and reality TV alike.
But behind the filtered recovery photos is a massive global industry that relies on wage arbitrage and a total lack of legal oversight. When you leave the country for a procedure, you're also leaving behind malpractice laws, insurance, and safety regulations. You're essentially betting your life that nothing goes wrong, because if it does, there's no undo button and no legal recourse.
Today, we're talking at the true cost of these savings.
Chapter 3: What are the real risks associated with cosmetic procedures abroad?
We'll break down why the complications are often socialized by U.S. hospitals while the profits stay private. We're also going to take a look at the darkest edge of this marketplace where the lack of transparency leads to genuine human rights horrors like forced organ harvesting. It's a look at what happens when the human body becomes just another link in the global supply chain.
Here today to help me separate the cosmetic from the chaotic is writer and researcher Nick Pell. Nick, how many CCs did you get for your Brazilian butt lift?
Zero. I just got a ton of tattoos, but my wife really wants a ton of procedures, so saving my pennies for that.
Yeah, every single episode of Skeptical Sunday contributes to what your Get My Wife Freakishly Large Boobs fund?
Yes, that is actually exactly what she wants, and freakishly large is a good way of putting what she wants. My wife's desire to transform herself into a walking advertisement for a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon is kind of why I know a lot about these procedures.
And we've actually had conversations about exactly why she will not be flying to Turkey to get a thousand cc's of silicone put in her boobs.
That's weird, though, because we both know you guys love a bargain.
We do love a bargain, but I like having a living wife better. Sure. Even if you trust a doctor in Bolivia, which, by the way, I don't. There's tons of other issues you're going to run into getting plastic surgery abroad in the best case scenario.
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Chapter 4: How does organ harvesting connect to medical tourism?
Yeah, I think it's important to point out that there are tons of countries where you can do medical tourism that's super safe. You know, I can go to Taiwan and get probably around 20 grand worth of health checks for like four thousand dollars.
I know that's still expensive, but stuff like scans for early stage cancer, tons of blood work, MRIs, CAT scans, CT scans, whatever, tons of exploratory stuff. I mean, I had like a thyroid scan and they're like, you have little things in there that we got to check up on in a year or two because that might be nothing. It's probably nothing, but it could also be like stage zero cancer, basically.
And so like, I'm going back this year and if it's bigger, they're gonna do something about it. And if it's not, then they just let it go. And the truth is, most people have something like that. You just find out about it when it's all over your body and you have to do chemo or you're gonna die. So I'm like, let me get ahead of that.
And Taiwan has the third best healthcare system in the world, at least on the ranker that I took a look at. So it's not like, I'm not flying to a Caribbean island to get a dick implant. Anyway, what are some of the differences between the American health care system and health care systems abroad just generally, besides the fact that ours is super expensive and everybody complains about it?
Chapter 5: What should you consider before choosing a medical tourism destination?
You know what I'm talking about.
Yeah. Malpractice laws is the big one. Laws in general, it's a pain because malpractice insurance and litigation drive up the cost of American medical care, as I'm sure you know, because I'm sure you've heard doctors talk about it. Sure. But they also mean that you have a recourse if things go wrong.
So if you're getting a thousand cc's of silicone pumped into your chest in Bolivia, there's a lot of things that can go wrong.
Right, and people aren't thinking about that when they see somebody got a BBL in Thailand for a thousand bucks using basically a Groupon they found on Instagram.
In fairness, I'm sure tons of people go abroad, save a few bucks, get the exact same procedures they wanted, and they're fine. but you're taking a massive risk. The world's best doctors are in the United States.
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Chapter 6: How can you effectively vet a clinic for medical procedures abroad?
I'm not really aware of anybody who disputes this. This is especially true when you're talking about unnecessary elective cosmetic procedures. Countries with single payer and other forms of not-for-profit healthcare just do not have the same robust market for doctors that we do in the good old U.S. of A.,
Before people jump on me for this, according to Newsweek, out of the top 10 hospitals in the world, four of them are in the United States. OK. Johns Hopkins, Mayo Clinic, Mass General and the Cleveland Clinic. Doctors in the United States perform roughly 22% of all global cosmetic surgeries, 7.4 million procedures annually.
And when it comes to plastic surgery, volume correlates heavily with skill. American doctors are just getting their reps in in a way that doctors abroad are not.
Yeah. OK, so I want to also just sort of say, like, we're not saying, hey, doctors in Turkey and Thailand are bad and they're going to kill you.
Chapter 7: What are the most common complications faced by medical tourists?
This is like exclusively cosmetic surgery that you don't need. And the skill of the health system as a whole, not like the doctor that you are or your cousin is or you used in Bangkok is automatically terrible. I don't want to get emails about that because that's like that's like that.
And the risk of getting an MRI is like zero.
Right, yeah. Like, if you're getting an MRI in Turkey, it's fine. Unless they're bashing you over the head with a hammer or something when they put you in the machine. Like, it's fine. We're talking about a clinic in... I mean, the thing is, there's, like, guys in Mexico doing five BBLs a day, and they're getting their reps in, Nick, but...
I worry that some of them might not actually be doctors. And that's kind of where I'm going with this. Not like, oh, Mexican doctors aren't real doctors, but like, no, this person is a guy who dropped out of nursing school in the United States and went, screw it. My cousin runs a clinic in Tijuana and he can show me how to inject silicone into somebody's butt. This isn't that hard.
Chapter 8: How does the U.S. healthcare system impact decisions on medical tourism?
And they're doing a bunch of those. But yeah, that's not because they're qualified. It's because there's nobody stopping them. So do we know how many people are engaged in medical tourism every year?
The Medical Tourism Association estimates roughly 14 to 22 million people a year travel internationally for medical care. Medical tourism is valued at approximately 40 to 48 billion in 2025 and is currently growing at between 15 to 20 percent annually. As of 2024, 2025, estimates suggest that over one million Americans are again crossing borders for medical reasons.
I can't even believe there's a medical tourism association. What is that for? Advocacy group, I guess?
It's a nonprofit trade organization. Okay. Dedicated to medical tourism and the international patient industry. And it's headquartered in, drum roll.
Yeah. West Palm Beach, Florida. Zero. I was going to guess Miami, but I think West Palm Beach is like basically that, but like- Yeah, okay. So what are the biggest destinations for medical tourism?
Mexico gets over a million international patients a year. Most of these are from the U.S. and Canada. Thailand is getting over 3 million annually. That's the big spot in the Asia-Pacific region. Turkey sees hundreds of thousands of visitors a year, specifically for hair transplants. They do about 1,500 of these every day. Wow. Stomach Botox, weight loss procedures is another big one.
And South Korea reached a record high of 1.17 million foreign medical tourists in 2025.
Someone close to me went to Turkey for a hair transplant, and I have to say, they crushed it. It was really, really well done, which I guess shouldn't be a surprise when there's 1,500 per day being done over there. That's like a chunk of their economy. That's crazy. What are the main procedures people are looking for? Hair transplants, obviously, is serious, at least in Turkey.
But I find it hard to believe that three million people are getting, I don't know, double eyelid surgery in Thailand every year.
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