United States-Mexico cross-border health insurance initiatives: Salud Migrante and Medicare in Mexico

Arturo Vargas Bustamante, Miriam Laugesen, Mabel Caban, Pauline Rosenau

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

27 Scopus citations

Abstract

While U.S. health care reform will most likely reduce the overall number of uninsured Mexican-Americans, it does not address challenges related to health care coverage for undocumented Mexican immigrants, who will remain uninsured under the measures of the reform; documented lowincome Mexican immigrants who have not met the five-year waiting period required for Medicaid benefits; or the growing number of retired U.S. citizens living in Mexico, who lack easy access to Medicare-supported services. This article reviews two promising binational initiatives that could help address these challenges-Salud Migrante and Medicare in Mexico; discusses their prospective applications within the context of U.S. health care reform; and identifies potential challenges to their implementation (legal, political, and regulatory), as well as the possible benefits, including coverage of uninsured Mexican immigrants, and their integration into the U.S. health care system (through Salud Migrante), and access to lower-cost Medicare-supported health care for U.S. retirees in Mexico (Medicare in Mexico).

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)74-80
Number of pages7
JournalRevista Panamericana de Salud Publica/Pan American Journal of Public Health
Volume31
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2012

Keywords

  • Border health
  • Delivery of health care
  • Emigrants and immigrants
  • Insurance, health
  • Medicare
  • Mexico
  • United States

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

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