@katie215 Thanks for responding, Katie. I think 70 is young. What I do know is that Mayo accepts patients from all over the world and they will accept cash if you do not have health insurance coverage. That being said, I don't know what it would cost. My surgery was listed at about $65,000, but the insurance company has a negotiated contracted rate which is less, and then I pay my portion of that. I had already hit my out of pocket maximum that year, so there were no additional charges to me for my surgery. I had been to 5 surgeons before I came to Mayo and testing during that year, and Mayo's testing maxed out my responsibility for the year. The website has a cost estimate for procedures so you can see an example. I have asked my surgeon's nurse about people from other countries, and what you can do is contact Mayo and ask to submit your imaging for review. You can ask for a particular surgeon. I did that. There would not be a charge to do this, and they would tell you if they thought they could help you or not with a surgical procedure. If you are accepted at Mayo, they would offer an appointment. You can decline that if you do not think it is realistic for you to come. My surgeon was excellent and one of Mayo's best, a neurosurgeon spine deformity expert who also has orthopedic spine fellowship training. He was trained at Mayo and teaches there. I found my care at Mayo to be so much better than any other place I consulted, and my Mayo surgeon got it right; the other 5 surgeons had missed the diagnosis and refused to help me. I had a great recovery and spine surgery gave me my life back. I was very careful in my choices and only consulted surgeons I chose based on where they trained and worked, if my issues matched their interests, what they wrote research papers on, if they were recognized for academic excellence, and I looked to see if they were recognized for their achievements with Becker's Spine review as a surgeon you should know. I also looked for any disciplinary actions on the State medical license board to make sure there was none. There is also a rating of percentage of success on specific procedures that are for Medicare patients, and it rates doctors and the facility separately. Medicare patients are older after age 65, so that has to be considered too since often other health issues can affect a surgical outcome. I do know that Mayo surgeons can do things that other places cannot or will not attempt and they have more volume of specific procedure experience than a lot of other places. If you are a healthy 70 year old, I think you could get help. I would be happy to answer any questions about my experience with my surgeon. I regard him highly and if I need help for further spine issues, I will only go back to him in Rochester. You can contact Mayo on the website by typing in a request, or call them. Here is the online request for for international patients and the phone numbers for international appointments is listed on the right side of that screen.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/forms/international-patient-appointment
https://costestimator.mayoclinic.org/ Cost estimates search

https://www.beckersspine.com/spine-lists.html (You can search and see if a doctor is listed there.)