It's really hard to tout the benefits of living in South America, Colombia in particular, without talking about how cheap it is to live there. Barring real estate, rent, or buying a car, most everything else is cheaper South of the Border. This is part of the reason why we can afford to travel from place to place: it really is cheaper for us than living in the US. Had I given birth to Roman in the US, we still would have been making monthly payments on the hospital bill (not to mention the fact that we probably would not have been covered since my pregnancy would have been considered a preexisting condition when we came back from Europe). In Bogota, the grand total of all of my prenatal care (month 6 and beyond) plus the cost of the birth was a little under $2000 USD. Pediatric care for Roman (we saw the pediatrician 5 times) was less than 1k, including out-of-pocket costs for vaccines (although Colombia provides free vaccines for its residents, we decided to pay for the vaccines the pediatrician had because they were a type that touted less side effects like pain or fever).
We will happily talk about all of those financial benefits all day long. What is harder to talk about, however, is the disparity between the haves and have-nots in Colombia and our categorization into the haves.
We will happily talk about all of those financial benefits all day long. What is harder to talk about, however, is the disparity between the haves and have-nots in Colombia and our categorization into the haves.