Many people are forced to pay out of pocket or forgo therapy due to lack of insurance, exorbitant “co-pays,” and employers who won’t cover specific procedures.
The San Ysidro border crossing in southern California is a busy one; frantic border guards wave through groups of individuals conversing in Spanish and English while customs officials rummage through their baggage.
And although many of those travelling are just going home after a hard day of work in the US, many others are travelling for a different reason: health care.
Pedestrians crossing this street directly in front of a big drugstore as they leave the US. A full-service hospital is around 50 yards away. Numerous medical and dental establishments, many with large signage in English, can be seen along the busy highways that branch out from the border crossing.
All are taking advantage of the rise in medical travel as a result of the US’s exorbitant health care costs, which drive millions of Americans to Mexico each year in search of less expensive solutions.
As insurance middlemen, hospital bureaucracy, and other administrative overhead divert money away from patient treatment, the US spends nearly twice as much on health care than other industrialised countries, usually with inferior outcomes.
“Insurance doesn’t do a lot of things”
Ahmed Abu, a native of Kenya, has been a resident of San Diego for almost 20 years.
According to Mr Abu, “I’ve been going back and forth to TJ [Tijuana] for almost, like, 15 years doing every kind of thing, even taking people there for medical reasons,” “I see the dentist and get my spectacles fixed as well.
Despite the fact that I have health insurance, it is limited in what it can cover.
He has driven taxis for numerous US citizens going to Mexico for medical treatment, including many Californians.
Only 9% of Americans have health insurance, and even those who have adequate coverage sometimes have hefty “co-pays” and deductibles that drive up prices by thousands of dollars.
Additionally, insurance providers may decline to pay for some procedures deemed “elective,” including orthodontic care, forcing millions of Americans to pay out of pocket or forgo treatment.
Americans spent $433 billion on out-of-pocket medical and dental expenses in 2021.
