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Good to know! Medical arbitrage is a fun game. Turkey is another one where the all in price of airfare+hotel+medical procedure can be cheaper than the north american sticker cost
I think it's a borderline scam, but some Turkish hospitals basically have all inclusive packages for plastic surgery/"""comprehensive""" medical scans/etc
For better or worse, Turkey is no longer "cheap" but equivalent to Paris. When the last wave of inflation was mid course (early 2022), you could rent a well-located flat in Istanbul for 200 usd. A favorite restaurant of mine went from 17 to 53 lira by May 2022. Later, leaving Ankara in 2024, coffees were approaching 200 lira, while the exchange rate had only gone from 30 to 38 lira : usd.
Various monuments and attractions went from free to charging 50 euro entrance fees (like the Hagia Sophia).
I did get a comprehensive medical scan for about 30 usd, even running on a treadmill with things taped to me and testing blood. I think they're less scams and more so trivial/brass tax if you're going to do a (serious) cosmetic surgery. Beyond that, I have no idea about medical tourism costs at different points; my partner did that in Iran. A friend was considering some sort of knee operation for about 2000 euro, though.
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