Medicare available in Mexico ?

Medicare lobby group urges expats to tell representatives their stories
Written by GR Staff
Saturday, 20 June 2009
UNITED STATES - A non-profit organization dedicated to bringing Medicare coverage to eligible American seniors living in Mexico is urging expatriates to write to their elected representatives and senators with their personal health-care stories.

“They have constituents living in Mexico whose votes count,” Paul Crist, founder and presdient of Americans for Medicare in Mexico (AMMAC), points out in a recent newsletter.

Senators and congressmen need to hear from their constituents “to understand this is an important issue,” Crist says.

Crist’s newsletter and AMMAC’s website contains a sample letter to cut and paste, as well as a list of congressional offices that the organization has already visited, along with the email of a staff person who is aware of the Medicare issue. Links to a full list of elected officials is also available on the site, www.MedicareinMexico.org.

AMMAC is calling for a limited-scale Medicare experimental project in Mexico and believes it will be successful for three main reasons:

1. Medicare savings will result due to significantly lower health care costs in Mexico.

2. There will be improved health outcomes for seniors in Mexico, who are likely to access care earlier when symptoms arise and have more frequent preventative examinations and care.

3. The project will stimulate and enhance improvements already underway in certain sectors of the Mexican health provider sector.