Extending Medicare to Mexico: Impact on Mexican-Born Beneficiaries

Abstract

There have been a number of research projects conducted over the past 20 years at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs that have looked at the possibility of Medicare covering retirees living in Mexico (Warner, D., & Reed, K. (Proj. Dirs.). (1993). Health Care Across the Border: The Experience of US Citizens in Mexico. U.S. Mexican Policy Studies Program, Policy Report No. 4, LBJ School of Public Affairs, The University of Texas at Austin; Warner, D. (Proj. Dir.). (1999). Getting what you paid for: Extending medicare to eligible beneficiaries in Mexico. U.S. Mexican policy studies program, policy report no. 10, LBJ School of Public Affairs, The University of Texas at Austin; Warner, D. C., & Jahnke, L. R. (2001). Toward better access to health insurance coverage for U.S. retirees in Mexico, Salud Publica de Mexico, 43(1), Jan.-Feb. 2001, pp. 59–66. Retrieved from http://bvs.insp.mx/rsp/_files/File/2001/vol%2043%201/431_7_towardbetter.pdf; Warner, D. (Proj. Dir.). (2007). Medicare in Mexico: Innovating for Fairness and Cost Savings. Policy Research Project Report No. 156, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, The University of Texas at Austin). Although these studies have documented a large number of such retirees for whom emergency coverage in Mexico was of particular concern, there has never been enough interest in Congress to initiate such coverage under Medicare for persons who live in Mexico. Medigap coverage and Medicare Advantage plans (HMOs) often cover emergencies abroad when the emergency takes place in the first 60 days that the beneficiary is abroad, but Medigap plans and Medicare Advantage plans are only available to persons residing in the United States more than half the year. One of the reasons that it has been difficult to find members of Congress willing to promote this idea is that most of them believe that it would affect few of their constituents and that those that it would affect are living abroad and unlikely to vote.KeywordsPublic AffairMedical TourismMedicare CoverageCongressional DistrictDual CitizenThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.