Official survey all expats in Mexico

[teadust]

Hi all-

I've posted this info on a few expat message boards and I hope it's useful to folks here. Was reading the CancunCare message board yesterday and saw this mentioned:

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"Americans and Canadians living here, here's your chance to gripe ;-) I received this info in a newsletter from the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City.

"The Mexican Government is conducting a perception survey among citizens of the United States and Canada living in Mexico in order to identify the main difficulties they faced during the process of migrating to Mexico and once they have settled in the country. Its purpose is to collect information, analyze the main difficulties, and propose policy changes to facilitate migration to Mexico."

SURVEY: Main difficulties faced by US and Canadian citizens when migrating to Mexico

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(Please note that the URL goes to a domain name "surveymonkey" and while that seems wonky, it is a legitimate online survey company who has done these for clients like Toyota, Wells Fargo Bank, etc. Most likely the Mexican government doesn't have its web servers configured to run a survey, and hired a specialty company to host it and collect the results for them.)

It's anonymous, you are NOT asked to enter any personal identification info.

The questions include rating the difficulty of things, such as opening a local bank account, or getting a fixed phone line, or finding acceptable health care providers, or renting a home. It also asks about difficulties expats in Mexico might have with agencies in the U.S. and Canada once they are in Mexico, i.e. getting reimbursed from Medicare, or getting Social Security benefits, etc.

There are also areas you can write in your own comments and suggestions.

I think this is a pretty cool effort on the part of Mexico to query resident expats on their opinions and experiences in moving to and residing in Mexico. Hopefully the feedback they get will enlighten them on where they might improve things related to expat immigration and long-term residency.

[Just Visiting]

I have no idea of the realities in Mexico, however it has a horrible and strong rep for corruption and usually this is targeted to the police. It is also know to be a people ripe with violence and suffering with a narco-insurgency. Why move to a place that can't keep locals thugs from owning armies, let alone in check?

Work on this and I bet you people will flock to Mexico.

[Rodrigo84]

My cousin is an expat living down here (I expect him to join the forum shortly) and though Mexico has its issues, I always tell fellow Mexicans to treat all foreigners with respect. Reason being that it is common human courtesy and also we depend on their tourism and business for our economy. My cousin related a story to me about how one person had a very bad time with a police officer locally here in D.F., and decided to close his business, firing 100 employees in the process and let the mayor know. The person did nothing wrong, but simply was targeted for a bribe because of his foreign plates.

I think this survey is important so that my country can improve itself.

[teadust]

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.”

[synthia]

Since Medicare only has enough money to cover expats in the US until 2013, I don't think this has any chance of happening. I can't imagine them managing very well, either.

[teadust]

Originally Posted by synthia

Since Medicare only has enough money to cover expats in the US until 2013, I don't think this has any chance of happening. I can't imagine them managing very well, either.

If Medicare only has enough money to cover citizens in the US through 2013, the U.S. hasn't managed very well, either...

There already are large private insurance companies in the U.S. now (Blue Cross Shield of South Carolina, Health Net, Aetna Inc.) who send their policy holders to Mexico for certain medical procedures - because it's quality health care and it saves money for both the companies and the patients.

Mexico Gets Medical Tourists as Health Net Sends U.S. Patients

This trend's going to increase; Medicare might as well consider it, IMHO.

[pedro]

dental tourism has already been around a long time. a friend of mine just went back to canada after he spent 5 weeks here in 2 trips 3 months apart.
his dental cost here in chapala was $3100 cdn for:26 crowns,4 tooth removable bridge,3 root canals,3 extractions and the various temps require until the permanents were ready. his air fare and other expenses were another $2000 cdn and of course he had a 5 week vacation as well.

[sparks]

That's every tooth in his mouth. Not only do I wonder what he's been up to all these years .... but I can't imagine that being much of a vacation.

We have a dentist here that does post implants for full or partial bridges. He also teaches the process in Guad

[synthia]

There is a big difference between sending people who are already covered to another country for medical care, and adding coverage for people who don't have it.

And no, we haven't managed any of this very well at all.