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12 thoughts on “YOU CAN AFFORD TO GET SICK HERE:”

  1. This is a very useful and detailed article. I am always astonished and annoyed when I hear Americans disparaging medical care in Mexico. The experience of my friends and fellow-tourists tells me it is excellent, and both cheaper and more humane than in the US! Thanks for providing such good information.

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  4. Hi Jim, Thank you so much for this excellent article. I haven’t had any medical emergencies (knock on wood) since I moved to Cuernavaca 6 years ago. But I have always been under the impressions that they were available and I am glad to have the names, addresses, and telephone numbers and will keep them on file.

    So many ex-pats and visitors to Mexico get fearful about Medicare not covering them in Mexico. I can’t judge them for their feelings but for myself I have always tried to avoid the fear of ‘what will happen if I get seriously sick in Mexico?’ Since I do go to NYC around every 6 months I have my routine physical and those routine exams done there at the clinics and with doctors I have always used.

    I have a botox shot in my vocal chord muscles for my spasmodic disphoniaevery 6 months. When I first moved to Cuernavaca there was no doctor who did this procedure. Now there are 2 younger doctors in Mexico City who trained in the U.S. and a year ago in Feb. I started treatment with one of them and have been very well satisfied. In fact, his equipment is state of the art and the Hospital Angeles-Lomas where he does the procedure is impressive. The only negative I have is getting to the hospital. It is a long trip across Mexico City and in Nov. the traffic – due to road construction near the hospital – was so bad that travel to and from took several hours. The one positive about the hospital’s location is that a new shopping mall opened recently within walking distance from the hospital and I reward myself for enduring the ordeal by a small shopping spree. There are several good restaurants in this mall and that is a plus too. The hospital is near the Santa Fe shopping mall and there is a bus from Cuernavaca that leaves Pullman Silva around 6 a.m. and gets there at 9 a.m. That bus returns to Cuernavaca from the mall around 5 p.m. Unfortunately, this bus is no faster getting in and out of Mexico City than private car service, taxis from Tasquena or any other mode of transportation I have explored. Travel to and from the hospital to Cuernavaca is an ordeal.

    Ex-pats I think are always so fearful of costs. They think that if they aren’t being covered by Medicare or a private insurance plan,they are going to pay prohibitive prices for medical needs. In the US Medicare pays $2,000 for my botox shot. Here I pay the doctor 6,600 pesos out of pocket and file a medical claim for reimbursement for some of the cost to my New York University Retiree Medical Plan. I do not feel that what I have to pay the doctor here is an expense that I can’t afford. I feel that in the long run my health expenses, including dental, are much less than what I was paying in the U.S.

    I haven’t had to face any major health crisis like cancer, heart disease, etc. and don’t know how I would feel about being in Mexico if such an event occurs. But for the moment I feel I’ll face it, if and when, it happens. For now I concentrate on enjoying all the health benefits that Mexico offers and aren’t that readily available where I lived in U.S. – i.e., a wonderful climate, a swimming pool I can swim in all year around, wonderful local fresh fruits and vegetables, much less stress, etc. I look at the many very elderly people who live here in seemingly good health and think Mexico is a good place to live health wise.

    Thanks again, Dorothy

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    • Dorothy, thanks for your detailed commentary. We share some mutual feelings on the issue. I go back to the States twice a year, May for Mothers Day and taxes, Sept. to escape the pendejada de Tlaltenango behind my house. I get my routine testing done then also, thanks to medicare and a backup insurer. I have been lucky to have timed most surgery for my stays in the states, but I don’t fret should I have to pay out-of-pocket here. I am delighted you can get your vocal chord treatement here in Mexico. Stay heatlhy!

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  5. Gracias por el articulo. Do you think part B of MEDICARE is important to have even though I don’t plan on returning to the U.S? The preumium is about $115 a month and a ten percent penalty annually applies if I fail to sign up during the enrollement period. Fortunately I have not needed medical services. My MEXICAN wife is able to offer me ISSTE SEGURO MEDICO through her work place as a federal employee free of charge.

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  8. This is really well done, Jim. I had one student who tripped and fell outside Walmart. They immediately took her to an emergency room where she was x-rayed and a cast applied. She was very impressed by her care…she was a nurse and so evaluated it from her professional as well as personal perspective. Sorry I don’t remember the name of the hospital. Mary Lou Moore

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