We are so profoundly influenced by our perceptions, assumptions and biases that we may not even realize how we are being influenced. That goes for how those in the U.S. tend to view medical care in other countries, including Mexico. But as an expert on medical care in Mexico and a long-time expat, I can tell you that healthcare in Mexico is much better than you might expect.
As part of an online discussion, I remember telling a woman in the United States, that medical care is by and large very good in Mexico. The next thing I know she tells me that of course it isn’t nearly as good as the care that her hometown hospital provides, that the doctors are better trained in the U.S. and the equipment is better than any hospital in Mexico would be.
I remember asking the name of the hospital in the town she lived in and looking at their hospital website, especially the list of the medical staff. Not surprising to me, the majority of the staff doctors were trained in hospitals all over the world: India, Saudi Arabia, and of course, Mexico. This is in keeping with the international nature of medicine.
I make a point of telling you this to assure you that if and when you come to Mexico, you are likely to find a quality of care that is as good as you might find in your hometown. And you may find the hospital or clinic is even newer and better equipped than the one in the town you left behind.
The first time I visited a dentist in Mexico, I was shocked to see the inside of my mouth projected onto a television screen hanging on the wall in front of my chair. My dentist in Chicago didn’t use an intraoral camera to show me the problem areas in my mouth.
And there are so many new hospitals, both public and private, that when a family member was hospitalized recently, he was the first patient in a fully-equipped and staffed intensive care unit with an amazing array of state-of-the-art equipment.
When I visited Los Cabos in the state of Baja California Sur, México, a few years ago, I asked several surgeons what equipment they would like to have if they could have anything at all. The response was always the same: a DaVinci surgical system—a state-of-the-art robotic surgical system. Now, many of them are actually routinely using DaVinci systems to assist with a wide variety of surgeries including hysterectomy, prostatectomy and various types of plastic surgery.
If you are traveling to Mexico with the mistaken assumption that this means that you’ll have to return to the U.S. or Canada for first-world medical care in well-equipped hospitals, I hope you now understand why people from all over the world often visit Mexico for affordable medical care in some of the best hospitals in the world.
