When one American tells another American, always in hushed whispers and never in mixed company, “I am going to Mexico.”, here is the usual response:

· Don’t drink the water. · You’ll probably get robbed. · If you get sick, be sure to have yourself emergency airlifted back to the U.S. at the cost of tens of thousands of dollars.

Americans suffer from what has to border on pathological paranoia when the phrase, “I am going to Mexico” is heard. They all but have a hissy fit when they hear that you are going to Mexico for a visit and will all but swoon to the floor when you tell them that you just sold all your earthly possessions to move to Mexico.

What is so infuriating is that most of “the stories” that Americans are so quick to offer go something like this,

“Oh, I know of someone who once rode a tour bus. After he got back from Mexico, someone told him that a cousin, whose mother knows of this lady who told her that the same bus got robbed.”

It is maddening.

Of the three points bulleted above, the last one, Medical Care, is probably the worst. All Americans seem to know that Mexican medical care is positively pre-historic. They are sure, though they cannot tell you how they know, that all the doctors in Mexico were educated at Bedrock Medical School with Fred Flintstone’s uncle as their medical professor.

Plus, to make it worse, none of these American storytellers have ever had to use the Mexican medical system.

In my humble view, here is where all this comes from. Here is why Americans freak out when they hear anything about Mexico.

Because of ignorance, lack of education, myths, second hand accounts, and good old-fashioned bigotry, anything that comes out of Mexico has to be no good.

If it is an educated Mexican coming out of Mexico, then Americans will assume they are a “wetback” trying to steal American jobs.

If it is a doctor in Mexico, then it has to be a “second-rate” doctor—practicing primitive caveman medicine.

If it were a veterinarian, then Americans comment, “I wouldn’t take my dying mother-in-law to him.”

In other words, to the American mind, anything in or out of Mexico has to be primitive, dangerous, old-fashioned, out dated, will make you sick, will steal from you, has dubious motives, will rob, rape, and pillage you. Can anything good for you be in or come out of Mexico? The Mr. Average American says a resounding “No!”

This mentality is especially applied to Mexican Medical Care. Regardless whether the American telling you how you will most certainly die if you even look at a Mexican hospital has had to take advantage of the medical system in Mexico, they believe it is true because it is Mexican!

“If it is Mexican then it has to be something bad.”

The way most Americans think: Do not confuse me with logic and reason.

Your humble and really contrite author has had to take advantage of the Mexican medical system—repeatedly!

Am I hearing Americans hit the floor?

I’ve had to be hospitalized, tested, poked, prodded, and IV’ed. Not only did I NOT die, I have to say I had the best medical care I’ve ever had in my life. And, trust me, I have a lot to compare it to. I have several chronic illnesses from which I have had to be in many “American Houses of Horrors” that are commonly known as American Hospitals.

Medical care in Mexico is just like medical care in the United States. In some areas it is very, very good. Some might even call it exceptional. And in some areas, I would not bring even my dying mother-in-law (should I rethink that?) to a doctor or hospital.

The doctors seem highly competent. They do not have the “assembly-line medical mentality” that seems to be prevalent in the USA. Thus, they will spend as much time as is necessary with you. When I was in the hospital here, the doctor came to my room three times a day. He also, now get ready to gasp, faint, and swoon, gave me his home number and cell phone to call him if I had questions.

Some doctors have been educated in Mexico and some not. Some did their residencies in Mexico and some in the United States. Some of the doctors here are Americans who came here to go to medical school and ended up staying here rather than returning to the U.S. where fortunes could be made from bilking the insurance-covered Americans.

They tell me they stay on in Mexico to practice the long-forgotten Art of Medicine that still exists in Mexico.

America has forgotten what that even means!

I know of a guy on the west coast of Mexico who took ill. He had to have by-pass surgery and elected to do so in Guadalajara. He reports that he had the most unbelievably excellent care. The best part was that the bill came to only a few thousand—under five grand. He paid for it in cash and then filed with his insurance back home.

This is not an uncommon occurrence.

So paranoid and so convinced are Americans that you will die if you have to see a doctor in Mexico that these “we will fly-you-out-of-the-country” outfits have risen up. For a premium, probably as much as the open heart operation in Mexico, you can get yourself flown back to The States if you have a hangnail and don’t trust the Mexican doctors to take care of you.

These are American crooks preying on the myths, fears, and lies that Mexican Medical Care will kill you.

I know of professionals in some of the American border towns that routinely seek medical care for their families across the border rather than pay the highway-robbery price of American medical care.

Medical care is cheap. We see a general practitioner for less than $2.00. If we must see the specialist, then it is less than $30.00. Prescriptions are also cheap. I use all Mexican equivalents of what I was taking in America. If you come here wanting the same name brand that you took in America then you will pay dearly.

To which I say, “What’s the point of that?”

Douglas Bower
http://www.lulu.com/content/580006