Posted on 05/18/2019 11:17:33 AM PDT by Steve1999
Hundreds of thousands of Americans are crossing the border into Mexico each year to receive a wide range of treatments, including medical services, dental care and cosmetic surgery, experts in what has become known as "medical tourism" say. According to Josef Woodman, the CEO of Patients Beyond Borders, an organization advocating for medical travel, as many as 800,000 to 1 million American citizens make the trip from the U.S. to Mexico for affordable treatment each year. That number, Woodman said, is a "conservative estimate" and excludes non-citizens and undocumented immigrants, of which he claims there are thousands who also make the trip to Mexico each year for treatment. The true number of Americans who travel south for treatment is difficult to estimate, he said, as medical travel is typically a private affair.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
There are non-quack cures for it right here in america. Don’t even have to put mexico in the equation.
I seem to remember Vince Lombardi going to Mexico because Laetril was not available in the United States. We later learned Laetril was less effective in curing cancer than wearing copper bracelets.
Actor Steve McQueen who died in Mexico seeking cancer cure comes to mind.
And how many of those are native Spanish speakers originally from south of the border?
This isn’t news. People have been going to Mexico for medical/dental treatment for decades. The quality of care they receive...well, I’m sure it varies from first rate to ‘don’t want to think about it’. My cousin took my aunt to TJ to get treatment for failing eye sight that involved injections into her eyeballs. Didn’t help her one bit. And Steve McQueen tried to prolong his life by taking treatments there to no avail. I have heard that some dentists are pretty good.
Medical tourism is old news. I know plenty of people who drive into MX for dental and drugs.
Mexico and Costa Rica and some of the old standbys in Thailand and India. These are the places the better and more entrepreneurial doctors go when their societies make their professions untenable. The best English and Canadian talent and facilities are in India and Thailand. Some of our own have set up shop offshore around the Caribbean. Without all the government drek and bureaucracy and the liability insurance required in litigious cultures they can offer superior treatment at much lower cost. For things like bypasses it can be cheaper to fly to somewhere else, stay in a nice hotel, get the work done and fly home than the deductible on your obamacare.
Would you go to Mexico for a bypass? a liver transplant? maybe not.
Besides, the US has an insane law that says that hospitals must throw away the bill for those who say they can’t pay. (Which explains why bills are insanely high in the USA.)
Very long story short...everything I saw there could only be described as "breathtakingly primitive".And even that assessment is being generous.
I know that Mexico isn't Tanzania...I know,or assume,that it's not quite as poor or backward (although I've never been there).
IMO...an opinion based at least to a degree on a rather deep knowledge of health care...anyone who goes to Mexico for heath care has a death wish.
Risky business
Mexico doesn’t suffer from ambulance chasers or lobbyists paying congress to restrict medical treatment, and they did not have a Kenyan queer and a bunch of Democrats screwing up the medical industry
My dentista’s work was and is of excellent quality.
My crowns cost about 25% of the American price.
“the US has an insane law that says that hospitals must throw away the bill for those who say they cant pay.”
Incorrect.
The federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) requires hospitals that participate in Medicare to provide emergency care regardless of patient ability to pay.
The hospital normally tries to bill and collect payment. In the one case I know of personally, bill collectors called the patient daily.
State garnishment laws protect low income families from garnishment.
Most of these protected families qualify for Medicaid. The bills will get paid by Medicaid if the hospital walks the family through the Medicaid application process. This isn’t always done because the application processing costs may exceed the medical care facility provision costs.
Medical bills are rarely thrown away by hospitals. Instead, they are sold off to bill collection companies.
For the price of an examination and ONE pair of glasses here, I can fly to Mexico, stay in a hotel for a week, and get two sets of glasses and frames.
I then come home and still have $250 or so left over.
“AMERICANS ARE CROSSING THE BORDER INTO MEXICO EVERY YEAR TO GET AFFORDABLE MEDICAL TREATMENT-”
That’s how bad the democrats Obamacare is.
That didn’t start with Obamacare. Being going on for decades.
Didn’t Steve McQueen go there to get treatment for cancer? That quackery didn’t work so well, IIRC.
the cure would have killed a healthy man
The program included intramuscular injections of animal cells, large doses of vitamins, an organic diet and the use of frequent coffee enemas.
I have a picture of bands of elderly Americans Crossing the Sonoran Desert to sneak into Mexico for medical treatment. I’m just sayin’.
Or I can get two pairs of glasses from a discount lab in China (pre-tariff) for $69 without ever leaving my chair (and I do). Unfortunately, I do have to leave my chair for the Costco Optometric exam, $89.
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