In Case a Stingray City Denizen Bites off Your Hand

Grand Cayman will build a 2,000-bed healthcare city to target American patients and insurers searching for deeply discounted medical care. The Cayman government agreed to the deal with Dr. Devi Shetty, a low-cost healthcare pioneer renowned as Mother Teresa's heart surgeon. The healthcare city will cost about $2 billion and encompass a hospital, medical university and assisted-living facility.

Shetty estimates the Cayman facility will draw 50 percent of its patients from the U.S. "It will be much easier for insurance companies to buy an air ticket and ask [patients] to go to the Cayman Islands, get a heart bypass done, have a twoweek beach holiday and come back at perhaps less than 50 percent of the cost," he said.

The average cost for a heart bypass is $144,000 in the United States, five times higher than neighboring Mexico at $27,000. Even with the higher cost of doing business in the Cayman Islands, Shetty estimates a heart bypass will cost less than $10,000.