What we checked, where we read it, and on what date: the working notes behind the figures on this site.
Every figure is sourced and dated on its own page.
In most cases yes, because the IRS treats qualified medical care received abroad as an eligible expense, so an HSA or FSA can pay for a Seoul checkup. The catch is your own plan and an itemised English receipt.
Mostly no. Medicare does not pay for elective care outside the US, and private plans rarely reimburse foreign care, so a Korean checkup is self-pay. Here is what that means for the real cost comparison.
The US scan startups and a Korean hospital checkup chase the same self-pay customer, but they are not the same product. What each one actually images, what it costs, and the one real advantage each side holds.
A comprehensive health checkup in Korea takes a half-day, runs on published partner-centre prices, and can be booked from abroad. Here is what is included, what it costs, and how a foreign patient arranges one.
A contrast CT of the abdomen images the liver, pancreas, kidneys and bowel in one ten-minute scan, and it is the test that follows an abnormal ultrasound rather than the one that starts the search.
A calcium score, a cardiac CT angiogram and an echocardiogram answer three different questions about the heart, and a programme that runs only one has answered only one of them. Here is how they differ.
A low-dose chest CT is the purpose-built lung screen, sensitive to small nodules a whole-body MRI misses, at a fraction of a standard CT's dose. It is narrow on purpose, and a nodule it finds is usually not cancer.
An MRI images the brain itself and an MRA images its blood vessels, and a screening appointment usually does both in one sitting. Here is what each one sees and when the vessel pass is worth asking for.
A comprehensive checkup is a fasting morning appointment, and a long-haul flight from the US is a fasting overnight either way. Line the two up and the screening costs almost none of your actual trip.
