The Guadalajara Reporter wrote a follow-up article about the survey:

Guadalajara Reporter

Mexico to back expats’ Medicare offensive
Written by Megan Smith
Saturday, 24 May 2008

After surveying some 2,250 U.S. and Canadian expatriates living in Mexico, officials in the Ministry of Finance (Hacienda) believe there is sufficient interest to push for the extension of U.S. government healthcare coverage to foreign residents.

Access to quality healthcare was the primary concern for U.S. citizens who responded to an online survey measuring difficulties experienced by expats, conducted by Hacienda’s Department of Investor Relations earlier this spring.

Administrator Rodrigo Garcia Verdu said the overwhelming response to the survey has given his office impetus to support U.S. citizen efforts petitioning legislators to extend benefits abroad.

“Essentially our interest is that it is economically beneficial for both our nations. Our projections show that more and more retirees will be moving to Mexico. If they can obtain healthcare coverage here, that makes Mexico more attractive to investment and creates jobs for Mexico and the costs of medical services received in Mexico will be less,” said Garcia.

Garcia said his office supports the launch of a “Demonstration Project” or “Collaborative Research Project” under a Social Security Act proviso authorizing experimental cost-saving projects.

“This summer we will likely launch a signature campaign of foreign residents interested in receiving Medicare benefits while in Mexico,” he said.

Eighty percent of survey respondents were U.S. citizens while 14 percent were Canadians and six percent were dual citizens. Men were more represented than women, 58 to 42 percent.

“We believe we had a very good response,” said Garcia, adding that the multiple-choice survey is still up on his office’s website (SHCP - Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público, select “Relaciones con Inversionistas” then click on “Survey of US and Canadian Citizens Living in Mexico”) and he welcomes expats to continue contributing despite closure of the formal study.

Though data gleaned from the survey’s responses has yet to be formally released, Garcia said the profile of an average survey respondent was: someone who has lived in Mexico five years, is living with their partner or spouse, lives in Mexico year round, returns to their country of origin once a year, is not fluent in Spanish, has medical insurance in their home country and pays out of pocket for medical services in Mexico.

Most respondents said the quality of healthcare received in Mexico was comparable to their home countries, Garcia added.

Besides concern about healthcare coverage, Garcia said many respondents were dissatisfied with the difficulty and expense of immigration services, such as obtaining a work or resident visa.

“Many people complained that they were left in limbo while their immigration applications were in process, unable to obtain banking services or rent a house or get car insurance,” reported Garcia.

Hacienda is currently determining how best to distribute the results of the survey to other governmental agencies, such as Migration (INM), that could take the information under advisement as they review policy.

“It’s a bit delicate politically,” Garcia cautioned. “Some agencies aren’t happy that we asked the questions that we did and they certainly aren’t interested in hearing how people responded.”