Curaçao’s Social Insurance Bank logged more than 4,800 requests for treatment abroad in 2023 and named Colombia its most common destination. Aruba’s AZV had around 238 insured patients and companions in Colombia in a single week this August. Wingo now flies Barranquilla to Aruba in about an hour. Your island’s health system already trusts Colombia — this page is for the cases it won’t send, the lists that won’t move, and the islands whose only reflex is a flight to Florida at US prices.
Which island?
Colombia’s Caribbean coast is closer to Aruba than Aruba is to Miami. Medellín and Bogotá are a short hop further. The health systems of the Dutch islands worked this out years ago; most of the English-speaking Caribbean still defaults north.
AZV, SVB and BZV refer patients abroad under strict criteria, and Colombia is the regional destination. The gap is everything they decline, delay, or never cover: dental, LASIK, IVF, bariatric and cosmetic work, second opinions, and the specialist consult that is “six months out” at home.
Curaçao’s health minister toured Clínica Colsanitas in Bogotá in June 2026 and hosted Grupo Keralty in July, explicitly to shorten the island’s specialist waiting lists.
Private cover is the norm and overseas referrals mostly point to Florida. Anything your plan excludes or caps — or anything you’d rather not wait on — is self-pay at the most expensive rates in the hemisphere.
Grand Cayman has had non-stop Cayman Airways service to Panama City since June 2023, with Copa connections onward and bags checked through; the airline’s own CEO noted the medical-tourism sector’s interest at the launch.
Public hospitals ration by queue; private care at home or in Florida is priced off US benchmarks. Panama City is the hinge: Copa links most of the English-speaking Caribbean to Medellín and Bogotá in a single connection.
Language is the real question here, not distance. Clinics that serve international patients run English-speaking coordination; ask for the named person before you book.
Medicare does not pay outside the United States, so anything beyond the island’s own capacity is a mainland trip at mainland prices or a self-pay decision. Puerto Rico readers have their own page in Spanish; the specialist-shortage numbers there apply with few changes to St Thomas and St Croix.
What the insurers already know
Curaçao’s SVB reported more than 4,800 requests for medical referral abroad in 2023, up almost 7% on 2022, at a cost of over 57 million guilders. Its 2022 annual report described the majority of cases as following the regional approach, with Colombia the most common destination; the Netherlands takes the rest.
Aruba’s AZV does not publish a comparable annual count, but when a strong earthquake hit Colombia in August 2026 it confirmed it was monitoring around 238 insured patients and companions in the country at that moment. That is a steady pipeline, not an experiment.
And in 2026 Curaçao went further: Health Minister Tyron Boekhoudt visited Clínica Colsanitas in Bogotá with SVB officials in June, then received Grupo Keralty at the Curaçao Medical Center in July, with the ministry describing the next step as concrete agreements between GMN, SVB and Keralty to shorten specialist waiting times.
“I promised the people of Curaçao that I would tackle the waiting lists with concrete action, not just words.”
— Tyron Boekhoudt, Minister of Health, Environment and Nature, Curaçao, July 2026
Reported by the Curaçao Chronicle, 22 July 2026. Linked in the sources below.Getting there
| From | Route | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Aruba | Wingo non-stop from Barranquilla (about 1 hour, Thursdays and Sundays), Medellín, Bogotá, Cali and Bucaramanga | Colombia is nearly half of all Latin American seat capacity into Aruba. Barranquilla fares from USD 119 one way at launch. |
| Curaçao · Bonaire | Via Aruba, or via Panama City on Copa | Check current non-stop schedules before booking; they change by season. |
| Sint Maarten | Via Panama City on Copa, or via Curaçao/Aruba | Two legs either way. |
| Grand Cayman | Cayman Airways non-stop to Panama City, Mondays and Thursdays; Copa onward to Medellín or Bogotá | Interline agreements let bags check through. Arrives Panama 1:30pm; plan the onward leg the same afternoon. |
| Jamaica · Trinidad · Barbados · Bahamas · St Lucia · others | Copa via Panama City | One connection; Panama’s hub is built for it. |
| Bermuda · BVI · Turks & Caicos · Anguilla | Via Miami or via a larger island to Panama | Two legs. Colombia is a weaker fit here unless the procedure already needs 10–14 days away. |
| Puerto Rico · USVI | See the Puerto Rico page |
Entry: Dutch and British passport holders do not need a visa for short stays in Colombia. Rules for other Caribbean passports vary; confirm with Migración Colombia before you book anything.
Miami vs Colombia
For a self-pay patient the United States is the most expensive place in the hemisphere to be treated. This site publishes typical 2026 US cash-pay ranges and Colombian private-pay ranges side by side, with their basis, for the procedures islanders most often fly for:
Add the flight: Aruba to Barranquilla is an hour; Aruba to Miami is nearly three. For the southern Caribbean, Colombia is not the exotic option. Florida is.
How to check a clinic from the island
Every licensed health professional in Colombia is searchable in ReTHUS, the national registry. Ask for the surgeon’s name, check it yourself, then ask how often they do your procedure.
Colombian hospitals regularly place in the top ten of AméricaEconomía’s ranking of Latin America’s best. Ask which hospital your surgeon operates in and whether it has an international patient office — the same offices AZV tells its insured to call.
Itemised plan, materials where relevant, visit schedule, what is and isn’t included, warranty terms, and the name of the person who answers when you are back on the island. The full verification walkthrough →
Island readers · request a timeline
Typical 2026 Colombian ranges for your procedure (never quotes), the real routing from your island, which clinics work with international patients in English, Dutch or Papiamento-friendly Spanish, and a straight answer on whether Miami, Panama or home is the better call.
Assume no. Overseas referrals follow strict criteria and are approved and arranged by the insurer, not reimbursed after the fact. Ask them first. This page is for the cases they decline, delay, or never cover — dental, LASIK, cosmetic, IVF, bariatric — where you are paying yourself either way.
Clinics that serve international patients run English-speaking coordination, and the Colombian coast has years of practice with Aruban and Curaçaoan patients. Papiamento speakers usually find clinical Spanish workable; ask for a coordinator who has handled Dutch Caribbean cases before. The person who replies to the form below is a native English speaker living in Medellín.
Barranquilla and Cartagena are closest to the southern islands and handle a lot of Dutch Caribbean referrals. Medellín and Bogotá have the deepest hospital bench and the most international-patient infrastructure, and are a short domestic hop from the coast. For complex surgery we usually point to the hospital tier first and the geography second.
Consult and imaging can be same-week. Most restorative dental work runs 5–10 days; implants need two trips three to six months apart; joint replacement and bariatric surgery typically mean 10–14 days before you fly home. The clinic sets the schedule around your flights before you pay a deposit.
No prices are quoted on this page. Flight schedules and entry rules change; confirm both before booking. Insurer coverage decisions belong to AZV, SVB, BZV or your private plan, not to us.