Series
Passport to Care
Americans are crossing borders for dental care, prescriptions, and surgery because their own healthcare system prices them out. Five installments trace the economics, the risks, the equity questions, and the people who retire abroad because they cannot afford to age at home. The synthesis asks whether telehealth can eventually make the border crossing unnecessary, or whether that is another promise deferred.
BGM-8A
Why Americans Are Flying to Mexico for Their Teeth
Dental Tourism as a Symptom of a Broken System
Dental care is not covered by Medicare. The cost of major dental work in the United States has made dental tourism to Mexico a rational economic decision for hundreds of thousands …
BGM-8B
The Prescription Flight
Crossing Borders for Affordable Medications
Americans crossing into Canada or flying to Mexico to fill prescriptions they can't afford at home are not acting irrationally. The same drug costs ten times as much depending on …
BGM-8C
Surgery Abroad
The Risk-Reward Calculus
Hip replacements, cardiac procedures, cancer treatments in accredited facilities in Thailand, India, and Costa Rica: a fraction of U.S. prices, with outcomes that compare favorably …
BGM-8D
Retiring Abroad to Survive
When Social Security Stretches Further Somewhere Else
An increasing number of Americans are retiring to Mexico, Portugal, and Panama not because they dreamed of living abroad but because their Social Security check goes three times …
BGM-8E
Medical Tourism and the Equity Question
Who Can Afford to Leave
Medical tourism is most accessible to people with the financial cushion to pay upfront, the health to travel, and the flexibility to be away. The people who need the cost savings …
