The wave is coming

SKEPTICS IS US. Which is part of the reason why we ended up with enough money to run away from home and enjoy a comfortable retirement here in paradise.

CanuckBob wrote:Thanks for the insight. I had no idea that there were private medical insurance scams in the area. I can understand the skepticism now.

You know, I don’t think they started out as being “scams”; they just didn’t stand up to their obligations when “push came to shove”. And caring about what happens to another individual isn’t an issue, if it controls what affect them personally. :(

I'm particularly concerned about new comers who haven't been here to know the history of various service providers. For example, at one time Seguros Monterrey Life was about the only place you could buy health insurance lakeside. Then a company named BUPA started offering health insurance. I heard they went out of business for awhile and are back again now insuring people lakeside.

A medical care service provider called Surgical Host was here for a year or two and couldn't make it so if your doctor is a member of that group you now have to go to Guadalajara.

So having been here 12 years I've seen a lot come and go. It's best to get lots of referrals from people you know - your insurance agent and how easy it is to reach them and what they do for you is key getting your coverage to work when you need it.

Bob when you get here if you post the question on this board, who is your insurance agent and insurer, how long have you been with them, and how happy are you with their service you will have a lot of reliable information to make decisions.

My favorite medical scam was a few years ago and was all over the newspaper. The gist of it was that a doctor in Orange Co., Calif. who was also licensed to practice in Mexico would provide an "address" in the states for purposes of billing Medicare for services done in Mexico, all somehow connected with a one of the local hospitals and a "study" being done in Texas about getting Medicare in Mexico.

The Skeptic in me kicked in immediately, but many people wanted desperately to "believe".
I don't know what the final outcome was, but I think that the fines applicable to Medicare fraud may have been a real turnoff.
I don't believe in the Great Pumpkin, either.

gringal wrote: My favorite medical scam was a few years ago and was all over the newspaper. The gist of it was that a doctor in Orange Co., Calif. who was also licensed to practice in Mexico would provide an "address" in the states for purposes of billing Medicare for services done in Mexico, all somehow connected with a one of the local hospitals and a "study" being done in Texas about getting Medicare in Mexico.

The Skeptic in me kicked in immediately, but many people wanted desperately to "believe".
I don't know what the final outcome was, but I think that the fines applicable to Medicare fraud may have been a real turnoff.
I don't believe in the Great Pumpkin, either.

Yes, I remember that one, now that was a scam from the get-go. One of my favorite too.

What got me about that one was the number of people who kept up the defense for quite a while. Amazing!
But then, there are people who buy lottery tickets all the time, too. Hope springs.

David wrote:This article was written by someone who believes there are 1 Million Americans in Mexico. I don't know where that inflated number came from, it pops up often. However it simply isn't true.

In the early spring, I saw an article in a MX newspaper where MX had just issued its 1.000,000 FM2/FM3

Did the article happen to state whether that was an annual number of current FM2/FM3's or a cumulative number through the years? Big difference when calculating current residents.

Cumulative. BTW, the last census showed ~35,000 foreigners in Jalisco.

Thanks David! I have always questioned some of the "marketing figures" indicating as many as 1M foreign residents.

An oft quoted one is that the US Gov't. says there are 1,000,000 Americans in Mexico! Of course no source is given.

David wrote:An oft quoted one is that the US Gov't. says there are 1,000,000 Americans in Mexico! Of course no source is given.

This is from the 2010 census...TOTAL foreign population
Población extranjera en México

Año Población % total
1921 100.854 0,70%
1930 159.876 0,97%
1940 177.375 0,90%
1950 182.343 0,71%
1960 223.468 0,64%
1970 191.184 0,40%
1980 368.900 0,55%
1990 340.824 0,42%
2000 492.617 0,51%
2010 961.121 0,86%

David wrote:An oft quoted one is that the US Gov't. says there are 1,000,000 Americans in Mexico! Of course no source is given.

This appears to be a source for the 1 million US citizens living in Mexico:

"...at a September, 2001 meeting of The American Society in Mexico City, Universidad de las Américas-Puebla, social anthropologist Professor Mary Alcocer-Berriozábal, Ph.D., reported that research she conducted for her doctoral thesis (University of Kansas, 2000) indicated that the number of U.S. citizens living in Mexico is 1 million, and that 600,000 of those live in Mexico City."

SOURCE: http://www.peoplesguide.com/1pages/retire/work/bil-maste/%232americans.html

Merry