A haven south of the border
Douglas Bower – For the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Guanajuato, Mexico — I had become too sick to live in America.
Even with private insurance, even with Medicare, we couldn’t keep up with my medical bills. So we found a country where we could, and we left.
Picture this: A childless, middle-aged couple, both gainfully employed, both college-educated, living a frugal but happy life near Kansas City. The husband is diagnosed with a chronic, incurable illness. He has to quit work because the illness is very serious.
But, not to worry: After four long years and a legal battle, he gets on Social Security disability and therefore qualifies for Medicare. There is also the added security of the wife’s health insurance to cover the expensive prescriptions and everything else Medicare doesn’t. Everything will be fine because they are insured, and they will continue to live a happy yet frugal life. Or will they?
By the fall of 2002, my wife and I could no longer afford my illness. I was afflicted with fibromyalgia syndrome, a pain and fatigue disorder that eventually leaves most of those afflicted unable to work. The decrease in my income, plus the 10 prescriptions I took (not counting the drugs my wife had to take), were breaking us financially. We were insured, but the co-pays, deductibles and non-covered expenses were eating away at our financial security, bite after bite.
We found a sort of bitter consolation in the fact that millions of Americans share our plight. It turns out that more than 50 percent of bankruptcies filed in 2001 were medically related and were by middle-class homeowners who not only had an income but also health insurance. The prevailing myth that most bankruptcies are related to credit card debt is not true. Less than 1 percent of filed bankruptcies result from credit card debt.
All-too-common plight
Researchers found that 1.9 million to 2.2 million U.S. residents filed a “medical bankruptcy.” The average person filing for bankruptcy during 2001 spent $13,460 on co-payments, deductibles and uncovered services even though they had private insurance.
“Our study is frightening. Unless you’re Bill Gates you’re just one serious illness away from bankruptcy. Most of the medically bankrupt were average Americans who happened to get sick. Health insurance offered little protection,” said Dr. David Himmelstein, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School who led the study.
Another one of the study’s authors, Elizabeth Warren, said, “It doesn’t take a medical catastrophe to create a financial catastrophe. A larger share of American workers are going to have insurance that’s like a paper umbrella. It looks good, and it might even protect you in a sprinkle, but it melts away in a downpour.”
In the fall of 2002, the sprinkle on our paper umbrella turned into an unstoppable downpour. We had to do something before it tore the paper umbrella to shreds and our lives along with it. Little did we suspect that our search for more affordable prescriptions would not only find us financial relief but also end up changing our lives.
An attractive option
We heard rumors that prescription drugs were cheaper in Canada and Mexico. Our research showed this was indeed true. But this, to be honest, was a scary proposition. I also read that the U.S. government was trying to shut down many of the Web sites through which you could order these drugs.
That’s all I needed — to get arrested for smuggling drugs through the U.S. Mail. Many Americans who live in border towns simply cross the border to get a prescription filled at substantially lower prices with no hassles. Moving to a border town was not what we wanted to do. But what did catch my eye was that, in Mexico, not only were my prescription drugs cheaper. Just about everything else was, too.
Digging deeper, we discovered that a large population of American expatriates, about 1 million, already live in Mexico, taking advantage of a significantly lower cost of living. This was a stunning revelation to us. Moving to Mexico hadn’t been a remote possibility; now it appeared to be salvation.
We began our new lives in a beautiful colonial city, the capital of Guanajuato state, also called Guanajuato, in August 2003.
We stepped into a new reality where everything— prescription drugs, housing, utilities, food, transportation, entertainment — is 25 percent to 75 percent cheaper than it is in America. My Social Security disability income more than adequately covers our expenses here in Guanajuato. An example is that I can buy all my needed prescriptions for less than the co-pay I forked over for one drug in the United States. I get a month of Prozac for less than $16. Same drugs, only affordable.
Is moving to Mexico an alternative for everyone? I doubt it. But it is working for us on so many levels that we have no plans anytime soon to return to the land of our birth.
The solution? I don’t know. What I do know is that we, and many other Americans, cannot sit idly by waiting for our elected officials to work it out. We had to take action, drastic as it was. That paper umbrella won’t last long.
