Moving to Mexico to Buy Prescription Drugs Saves Money

Here we were. Both of us had an income. Both of us had insurance with prescription drug coverage. But we weren’t making it. All it took was a catastrophic illness to send our finances spiraling out of control. That illness was here.

We found ourselves in the position that more and more Americans are finding themselves: insurance with prescription drug coverage and an income but not being able to make ends meet when a major illness strikes.

In 2001, more than 50% of bankruptcies were medically related. Those filing were homeowners with an income and medical insurance with prescription coverage.

“Researchers found that in those surveyed, 1.9 to 2.2 million U.S. residents filed a “medical bankruptcy”. The average person filing for bankruptcy during the 2001 period spent $13,460 on co-payments, deductibles, and uncovered services even though they had private insurance.”

We were, like most Americans, no Bill Gates-we were one serious illness away from bankruptcy and that time had come. The thing was that deductibles and non-covered expenses were destroying us and we felt we could nothing about it.

Another of the study’s authors, Elizabeth Warren, said, “It doesn’t take a medical catastrophe to create a financial catastrophe.

Larger shares 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.”

While the politicians battle it out with their never-ending “tactics-that-never-work” war of words, we citizens of the richest country in the world are left to figure this out on our own.

That’s what we did. That’s what we had to do.

We discovered that drugs were cheaper, with a capital “C”, across the border in Mexico. We also discovered that not only were the costs of the same, if not better, prescription drugs cheaper, so was everything else.

We checked out the possibility of living in a border town but the cost-of-living wasn’t much better than where we were living-Kansas City-and there were no jobs. I had become too ill to keep working and my wife couldn’t find work to support us both.

A possible solution, if we could have afforded to do so and if jobs had been available for my wife, would have been to live in a border town and cross the border to see doctors and to obtain prescription drugs in Mexico. We have friends in El Paso who do just that. They go to the doctors and dentists and obtain their drugs in Mexico.

The kicker is the last I heard, the U.S. Federal government was trying to put a stop to that practice on both the Mexican and Canadian borders. Isn’t that a cheap shot? It most certainly begs the question: Who is behind that?

So, we found a country in which we could not only afford to live but where the cost of medical care from doctor visits to prescription drugs was affordable-and we moved there! It used to be that the expatriate community consisted mostly of retirees but that’s no longer true. More and more young Americans are moving here simply they can’t buy the prescription drugs they need. And in some cases to survive their illnesses.

Here is the skinny on prescription drugs in Mexico. You can buy the very same drugs you take in the U.S. for up to 60% cheaper. If you go the Mexican route, that is go to a Mexican doctor and have him prescribe the Mexican equivalent of what you were taking in the U.S., you will save even more.

I go to the pharmacy and get seven prescriptions for the price of what I was paying for one co-pay in the United States.

I realize the travesty here. Not all of you can do what my wife and I did. I have a Social Security Disability income that more than pays for all our needs here. Remember that the cost-of-living, depending in which part of Mexico you live, can be remarkably cheaper than ANYWERE in America. If you had an income of some sort, you could do what we’ve done. But I can see the dilemma and to be honest, other than doing what my wife and I did, I do not see a solution for Americans.

You simply cannot, unless you have the financial resources of Bill Gates, afford to get sick in America. Is moving to Mexico a solution for everyone? Hardly! But I would give it a try if you possibly can.

It may mean the difference between going with or without life-saving prescription medications!