Millions of Americans Flood Into Mexico for Health Care
The Trump administration is trying to convey panic that there’s an immediate crisis on the southern border, pointing to caravans of desperate people who have traveled thousands of miles.
It’s true that Latin and Central Americans are coming to the US fleeing violence and poverty, much of it caused by destructive US trade policy over the course of decades. However, there is another massive “border crossing” phenomenon afoot — and Trump has never said a word about it. We’re talking about thousands of US citizens crossing the border each day in search of affordable health care.
At just one checkpoint in Yuma, Arizona, up to 6,000 Americans cross the border every day and enter the bustling Mexican town of Los Algodones, seeking heath care.
Unlike the Trump administration that seeks to build a wall between the countries, Los Algodones welcomes Americans seeking medical and/or dental care with open arms.
In Los Algodones there are more dentists per capita than anywhere else in the world. It seems like every square foot of public space wall is covered with advertisements promising quality and affordable dental care, vision care, prescription drugs amongst others. The community’s economy is built to serve the flood of “health refugees” — mostly senior citizens from the US and Canada seeking care they cannot afford in their own countries, even with insurance.
Yucatan in 2018 received according to the Secretariat of Turism more than 2.2 million tourists. Out of those, an average of 700 thousand came to the city of Merida, looking for affordable healhcare.
This is why: The statistics are jarring. Approximately 74 million people in the US have no dental insurance, according to the National Association of Dental Plans. To put those numbers into perspective, that’s nearly a quarter of the population, or roughly twice the number that lacks health insurance overall.
But the problem is much larger than people lacking dental insurance. Dental insurance is not really insurance. It’s nothing like health or auto insurance, for example.
Most dental plans don’t cover much at all beyond regular check-ups, cleaning, X-rays and fillings. Beyond that, patients are expected to fork over much of the cost of large but common procedures like crowns, root canals and implants. Dental plans also generally pay a maximum of $1,500 annually, and $1,500 doesn’t go far when you consider the cost of major dental work. As an example, the cost of a single crown in the United states can be as much as $2,000 – $2,500 and the cost of an implant can run $5,000 a tooth. It’s not uncommon for seniors to need a set of four implants and several crowns, so you can see the costs can quickly get prohibitive.
Mexico with places like Los Algodones or the southern city of Mérida in the state of Yucatan, a fast growing city and one of Mexico´s safest cities and most technologically advanced places have quickly become a major source of relief for those seeking amazing and affortable health care.
The Yucatan Times
Newsroom
