Updated August 2020

Your easy guide to Mexico’s healthcare system

A few years ago, I considered spending a few months in Guadalajara to learn about more about Mexico’s healthcare system. Those plans changed after reading Monica Paxson’s excellent general guide, "The English Speakers Guide to Medical Care in Mexico, 4th edition.” This book gives all the major brushstrokes to understanding medical care in Mexico within its cultural context and detailed listings of hospitals and clinics that are hard to come by in one book.

The beauty of this medical reference guide is that it’s a painless read for a person only trying to get a general idea for the future, as well useful for a person seeking immediate help. 

Similarly to what I did with my book, The Mexico Solution: Saving your money, sanity, and quality of life through part-time life in Mexico, Paxon makes the book more user-friendly by the way she breaks out the general narrative from the specific information you might need once in Mexico.

A reader not yet in Mexico and trying to get a general picture of the healthcare system will not get too bogged down. Once the you do need details, you can find them in the appendices and resource pages.

You can read through this book in a few hours, and should do so before you even visit Mexico.  Many people look for information on medical care too late, after they have had a bad experience. As someone already living in Mexico with a few negative medical experiences under my belt, I wish I would have read this book before I got off the plane.

For expats or those considering medical tourism, English Speaker’s Guide to Medical Care in Mexico contains 17 helpful appendices including lists of medical schools, medical history forms, specialists and dentists. Several helpful sections give information on choosing doctors and hospitals, and the types of medical training you should look for.

How to approach health insurance is probably the thorniest task in moving to Mexico. Paxon’s information gives you the specifics on the various types of public insurance available in Mexico. Update: Seguro Popular has recently been replaced with a new program: Instituto Nacional de Salud para Bienestar (National Institute for Health and Well-Being).

Homeopathy more popular and accepted in Mexico

As the author points out, homeopathic medicine is widely accepted in Mexico. The book has source listings on homeopathic and alternative treatments.

I have become much more open to these treatments since living in Mexico after seeing how well-versed my Mexican friends often are in them. I have had minor ailments, such as skin infections, successfully treated by homeopathic specialists working behind the counters of excellent botanical stores at pennies to the dollar of what traditional treatments prescribed by both Mexican and US doctors.

To understand why homeopathic treatments are less accepted in the US, you need to know something about the politics of medicine in America and the American Medical Association’s Seal of Approval process.

The American Medical Association makes a fortune on selling its “Seal of Approval” to drug manufacturers (and at one time, the tobacco industry). Contrary to what many people believe, to obtain FDA approval does not require any tests of the drug for effectiveness. It only requires that the company producing the drug divulge the drug’s ingredients and that the company advertise in AMA publications, which makes the seal a huge revenue generator for the AMA (Take a look at this Huffington Post article for a fascinating history on how the AMA killed homeopathy in the US)

You might wonder about why Paxson has included so much information on insect bites in her book. Dengue fever and other infections is quite common in Mexico. The implications of an ignored, misdiagnosed or ignored insect bite make up a good percentage of medical horror stories I have heard in Mexico.  Medicines for reactions to some exotic bites usually exist, but in small quantities and are hard to get, hence the need for greater vigilance.

You should come away from reading this book feeling reassured. In many ways, medical training and processes are not all that different from the US. Like at home the quality of treatment often depends on where you are in Mexico, just like your care in the US can depend on whether you are in Chicago or rural Alabama.

Once you are in Mexico, living in the culture, many of the differences in how the two systems work will make perfect sense, often much more sense than America’s current healthcare system. With this guide you have all the groundwork you need for knowing what to expect and what your options are for high-quality care in Mexico at a fraction of the cost. 

 Related Links:

You would be shocked at the rate of misdiagnosis in the U.S. Why I would get a second opinion in Mexico [blog] - Ventanas Mexico

Sick in Mexico? Pharmacies deliver [blog] - Ventanas Mexico

Pubmed.com comprises 27 million citations of biomedical literature from Medline.com (The U.S. National Library of Medicine). life science journals and online books.

Private insurance in Mexico means less hassle and lower wait times. Full-time expats often opt private insurance, since it's so much cheaper in Mexico. Here are a few things you need to know - from an Mexican health insurance broker.

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About the author:

Hola, I'm Kerry Baker,  the author of the Ventanas Mexico blog as well as three books."If Only I Had  a Place," a guide to renting in Mexico between three-six months. It includes a list of rental concierges to preview places you're considering. My second recent book is “The Mexico Solution Saving your money, sanity, and quality of life through part-time life in Mexico” an instruction manual disguised as a insightful romp through Mexican culture. Most recently I released The Lazy Expat: Healthy Recipes That Translate in Mexico, a cookbook for expats, travelers and snowbirds seeking to maintain a healthy diet in Mexico.