Prepare Yourself For 16% Tax Added Onto Food And Medicine
The PRI got their way, and IVA the 16% National Sales Tax has been added to FOOD and MEDICINE. I have already noticed some price increases in other industries (mostly tourist oriented).
Forum Discussion
MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
If you have a serious medical issue in the USA you go to the emergency room. Without insurance. No cost. Minimal care. Go to a hospital in Mexico and they will STABILIZE YOU. Run up a hospital bill and ARMED GUARDS accompany you to the payment window. No money and you cannot leave. I just went through this in 2011 in La Paz. NOSE TO NOSE with the armed guards. Seguro Popular.
Mexwanderer, sometimes it's difficult to sort out what you are talking about. Living without insurance in the US sucks, and so does living on Seguro Popular in Mexico.
In the US you'd get - (didn't need to try, having Canadian Medicare) - a "stabilization" plus a little more. Then they will bill you if you are US or Canadian national, and the bill will be HUGE even for a minimal treatment. Poorest in the US would - for the most part - have Medicare so there wouldn't be much to pay. They won't try and bill Mex citizen because they know he'll leave their jurisdiction immediately. As a result, cost to the system is high, though there are also other reasons why it's gone bankrupt.
In Mex in a public hospital if you are gringo with no Seguro Popular or private plan, you'll get a "stabilization" (= keeping you from dying immediately), and then they will kick you out or ask to pay for further treatment. If you are Mex citizen, then you have Seguro, so you are treated without pay, unless Seguro doesn't cover something. Treatment can still be "minimal", because the whole system is "minimal". I talked to local "gente" and gathered a depressing picture - long waits and not always free. If you run the bill - armed guards and jail. They don't sue you, this isn't the US.
Foreigners raving about Mex universal health care (= Seguro Popular and IMSS) are forgetting that 5 grand for a minor heart surgery in public hospital - when it's not covered by SP - is HUGE money for a Mexican. Not to mention the quality of most public hospitals. US expat with SP in this case would go North and use his US Medicare, still biyatching about US healthcare :)... Mex citizen - don't know. Those close to the border would try and abuse the US system, others would do nothing. Not an enviable position either way.
