The cost of your breast augmentation surgery is a major consideration. However, a cost comparison is only one of the factors should consider when choosing your surgeon and clinic.
Average costs
Average cost for breast implant surgery, from pre-op to post-op, is $4,000 to $5,000. The national average for the surgeon's fees is $3,043. Costs vary from place to place with New York City tending to be most expensive. However, that is only for the surgery. Payment plans are usually available.
Cost breakdown
Specific costs you should consider:
- Surgeon's fee
- Implant cost
- Anesthesia
- Hospital charges
- Prescriptions
- Follow-up visits
- Tax
- Other costs (e.g. loss of income during surgery and recovery period)
How to finance breast augmentation surgery
Breast augmentation should be wonderful and exciting for you, but at some point you have to consider the financial realities of the process. In fact, working out the total costs and then looking at the financial options before making decisions is one way to make sure that the financial aspects do not impinge on the enjoyment of having your new figure.
The average total cost of the medical aspect of breast augmentation surgery that you can expect to pay is approximately $7000. This takes into account surgeon's fees, hospital or clinic costs, anesthesiology costs and taxes. Of course, you would have to check this figure for each surgery option because the cost is highly variable over geographical area, surgeons and medical facilities used. In addition there might be the indirect costs of any warranty or insurance, loss of earnings and cost of home help over the surgery and recovery period. The final total can be in excess of $10,000, an amount you have to finance in some fashion.
Sources of funding
Whichever method you choose it is necessary to compare interest rates, payback periods, the size of the monthly repayment and the total amount of money repaid over the whole period.
Credit card
You could use a major credit card to finance the surgery and other medical expenses; most clinics will accept credit cards. However, this can be an expensive way of borrowing money; as if the sum cannot be paid back in the short term, it can attract large amounts of interest.
Finance companies
You could approach a finance company for your breast augmentation surgery. This is an increasingly popular way of sourcing funds to pay for cosmetic surgery in general. However, be sure to check out the finance company at least as thoroughly as your surgeon.
Finance companies offer several different kinds of loan, including fixed rate finance, with payments staying the same during the duration of the loan; variable rate finance, where the interest rate follows the levels of interest in the economy during the period of the loan. You may also meet 'recourse' and 'non-recourse' financing options, meaning the finance company could retain or waive the option to take you to court if you default on the loan. Your repayment schedule will reflect which option is taken.
Of course, if you find a satisfactory finance company bear in mind that it can take up to 5 years to pay for the surgery.
Personal loan or home equity loan
It is possible that if you approach your bank they will consider lending you the money for this procedure. However, be sure that you look at interest rates carefully, as you should in all cases of borrowing money from any lender.
Medical insurance
For almost all cases, this is not an option. The only circumstances that medical insurance companies may pay for breast augmentation is as part of post-mastectomy surgery, or possibly, if a breast has completely failed to develop on one side. The conditions are very specifically defined by the AMA, and procedures they consider as cosmetic surgery are not covered.
Medical Savings Accounts
MSA's, not yet available to the majority of the population, are seen as an addition to medical insurance. In the future they may become a way of financing medical care. It is possible that when MSA's become available elective surgery will be included in the items financed.
Cash
Paying cash can decrease the amount you pay to your surgeon, and of course interest costs do not add to the total cost of the procedure. However, finding the whole cash amount may be difficult for you. On the other hand, you could simply take another job for some months and save, knowing that you have a short-term objective in sight. Once you have acquired the money you can go back to your normal routine.
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