As I was perusing through the different job opportunities on chirorecruit.com I couldn’t help but be intrigued by the Philippines.
The only experience I ever had was as a kid. My first stepfather was a marine and he was stationed in southern California. I remember our next door neighbors were another military family and the wife was Filipino. At the time, this was not so uncommon. Between my stepfather’s friends and my friends at school, there were a lot of marines who had been stationed in the Philippines and then would come back to the states newly married. In the summers when I was home from school, the neighbor marine would go off to the base for work and his wife would proceed to grill fish all day while listening to Celine Dion song my “Heart Will Go On” from the movie Titanic over and over again in Filipino.
In my adulthood I figured there is probably way more to the Philippines than the US marines finding their next wife. I went on the hunt to figure out why we as chiropractors need to pack their bathing suits, get on a plane and move to paradise immediately.
Here are the top 6 reasons to practice in the Philippines.
The most recent stat I could find came from 2013 which stated that there was only 24 chiropractors in the entire country. I’m going to assume that number has gone up in the last five years but based on the clinics I could find, it has not gone up substantially.
If your coming from the States, UK or Australia this one makes living in paradise even simpler. Yeah sure Italy has great wine, food and a chilled lifestyle but there is that learning a brand new language thing that you don’t even have to mess with in the Philippines.
At least from what I could find and from the job listing posted on chirorecruit.com, the Philippines seems to be very cash oriented. I’m not saying there isn’t the possibility of insurance being in the picture, I just couldn’t find it.
In 1997, the Philippine government passed the TAMA act and out of that came the creation of the Complimentary and Alternative health care division. In 2006, the Asian Pacific Federation of Chiropractic Doctors was formed. In 2009 came the governing body to certify chiropractors. At that time, only 22 doctors were certified to practice in the Philippines and they all had graduated from US colleges.
If your looking to be an associate, it appears the handful of clinics that are already in operation are killing it. Cash only practices and they take care of your visa, paperwork and get you all situated when you enter the country. What could be easier than that?
https://chirorecruit.com/job/54694/associates-needed-in-philippines/
I knew that the Philippines are a pretty tropical place to be but I didn’t have a clear image on what it looked like. Holy moly…if you don’t either than do what I did and google it. Just reading the description from lonely planet was enough to question my life choices. Beautiful white sandy beaches, crazy rock formations, big thriving cities to small seaside communities seems like the perfect combination of ease, language and the ability to make a living in paradise.
****Bonus Reason to Live Here*****
It’s 109% more expensive to live in the US than the Philippines! A movie ticket is just over $3.00, a pint of beer is $.94 and to make $1000 per month (not a week or a day) goes a long way to living the good life. It’s almost hard to fathom. If your coming from Europe, the Euro has been kicking the dollar’s butt for a long time so cost of living will be even more economical for you.
For more information on the Philippines check out:
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/041315/retiring-philippines-pros-cons.asp
https://www.docmikeblog.com/about-docmike/
Kassandra Schultz D.C