Carol Schmidt
Jul 25, 2003, 1:58 PM
Post #8 of 16
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Re: Personal experience with Mexican vs. U.S. health care
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After facing some really serious medical problems while living in Mexico, my surgeon said that he had run out of options, I was running out of time, and he needed to do exploratory surgery. I panicked and ran back to the States.
After a month of far more expensive tests and totally disjointed and chaotic mis-communication and delays between insurance and health care providers, I got exactly the same diagnosis. And all the U.S. doctors concurred that my Mexican doctors had done exactly the right things. They charged far less money and were far quicker and personally concerned as well. Many of them had trained in the U.S. and met the same credentials (Fellow, Diplomate, Board-Certified, etc.) as my U.S. doctors
Now, am I staying in the States at a major medical center for the risky surgery rather than going back to a 15-bed Mexican hospital with no backup blood supplies, etc.? Yes. I have heard of people dying because of a shortage of blood, and mine is rare. That can happen in the U.S., too, of course. I bet the rate of deaths from hospital/doctor errors are the same in both places--far too high anywhere in the health care system/
It's taken 6 weeks from my arrival in Phoenix until the surgery date, and it would have been long over with if I had stayed in Mexico, however.
There are pros and cons about the health care systems in both Mexico and the U.S., and the cons predominate in the U.S. system as well. If you're really sick, you're in trouble no matter where you are. Routine care is, I think, better in Mexico. My prescriptions and co-pays in the States cost more than the whole bill in Mexico. An ER stay and two days in a private hospital in Mexico, with all ER charges and seven visits from a surgeon, and about $400 worth of IV antibiotics, was $840 total charge. The Medicare deductible for a U.S. hospital stay is something like $800, or is it $1000 now, and then you pay anything over 80% of "customary charges" as well, and all doctors and radiologists, etc., bill in addition.
So the naso-gastric tube and IV operated by gravity, not pump, they worked just fine. The IV prescriptions were in reusable glass bottles, not disposable plastic, and I broke one trying to swing along the hospital corridor with an old IV stand, whereas everything would have been newer in the U.S. and all electronic and disposable and more expensive. Just noting, for what it's worth. As I said, the U.S. doctors told me the Mexican doctors had done everything exactly right.
I'm glad I knew some Spanish but should have known more. The doctors mostly spoke English but the aides and I had a hard time sometimes. This was one time when I truly wished I had studied my Spanish harder.
Carol Schmidt
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