Small Business Looks to Mexico for Healthcare Plan
Monday, October 03, 2005
LOS ANGELES As the cost of healthcare (search) continues to skyrocket, one businessman in Calexico, Calif., has found a solution to the problem.
Mark Holloway owns the Sam Ellis department store near the U.S. border with Mexico. He has about 50 employees and couldn’t afford health insurance (search) for them until he discovered a cross-border health plan that allows his workers to see doctors in Mexico.
“We were paying an excess of $100,000 a year to provide health insurance and that wasn’t even for all of the staff,” Holloway said. “When Blue Shield came to us and offered us an affordable way to bring down healthcare, we jumped on it.”
In Mexico (search), healthcare costs are about 40 to 50 percent lower than in California. That means patients only have to pay $10 to visit a Mexican doctor. Hospital stays, tests and medications also are more affordable south of the border.
One of Holloway’s longtime employees said the service is better in Mexico.
“I know that doctors across the border will see you that day if not in the morning, the afternoon, the evening. You will call them, they will give you their cells [phone numbers], whatever,” said Josie Llausas.
But some in the medical field in the United States are skeptical about the cross-border plans because of questions over the quality of care, specifically pointing to outdated technology like X-ray machines, ultrasound and MRI equipment.
Mexican doctors say while their equipment might not be state-of-the-art, their training is equivalent to that of American doctors.