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The rhetoric in this article is disingenuous. Regardless of your political persuasion, there is an enormous difference between someone walking across the border

The rhetoric in this article is disingenuous. Regardless of your political persuasion, there is an enormous difference between someone walking across the border for a single day to purchase a good or service in another country and an economic refugee seeking permanent or semi-permanent resettlement in a host nation. Americans heading for Cancun are not "vacation refugees" either.

pacofvf 8y ago
We have socialized health care, so you may think that you spend some dollars on the Mexican economy but, the American Caravan distorts our markets and drive prices up.
- kingofhdds 8y ago
  All kinds of foreign tourists drive prices up for a lot of things, but nevertheless they really bring money to Mexican economy.
  - pacofvf 8y ago
    But tourists drive prices up for markets that aren't regulated like hotels or restaurants, Healthcare is regulated and we will probably see some kind of legislation towards this issue with the new Mexican government, it probably will make it even cheaper for you guys to come here but you will have to enroll on our socialized healthcare.
- deogeo 8y ago
  You are mistaken - I was assured by many sources in the media that immigration, even temporary, has no down-sides.
gammateam 8y ago
This is an article about medical tourism. Its the same article no matter which country people are traveling to. The fact that it is about Mexico or Latin America at all enables political comparisons for perspective. Its an irony or tragedy when people can't get care in their host country with stronger infrastructure in other places.
- noonespecial 8y ago
  >This is an article about medical tourism. Precisely. Which is why I found the article's repeated attempts to conflate refugees and tourists to be so transparently disingenuous. Those political comparisons are completely orthogonal. It has been more than a little educational to ride the F5 key and watch the karma on my original post bounce like a pogo stick!
  - gammateam 8y ago
    Analogies compare to dissimilar things with common attributes, and it is up to you to figure out what the common attributes are. Not the dissimilarities. I think there is some utility to these comparisons, as they are orthogonal, the hyperbole drives the point home.
- AnthonyMouse 8y ago
  > Its an irony or tragedy when people can't get care in their host country with stronger infrastructure in other places. Except that that isn't really it. It's that it's more subsidized in one place than the other. If it's $200 here and $100 there, and it's exactly the same thing, who doesn't want to save $100? That's true even for people who can afford the price here. Probably what Mexico should be doing is charging separate prices to foreign nationals.
  - ap3 8y ago
    Mexico isn’t charging anything- it’s the individual providers setting up shop in a border town to cater to American patients. They can and do charge more but competition drives prices down.
    - AnthonyMouse 8y ago
      I don't know enough about the healthcare system in Mexico to tell you exactly why the prices are lower there, but it's likely to be one of two things. One is they have some kind of government funding or other subsidies for healthcare providers there, in which case they should look for a way to direct their funding to their own population and not rich foreigners looking for lower prices. The other is that the regulatory environment in the US creates unnecessary costs that don't exist in Mexico and people are naturally taking advantage of the lower overhead. That actually seems pretty plausible given what the regulations look like in the US. But in that case Mexico doesn't need to do anything and everyone who can should try to get their healthcare in Mexico, until such time as the US providers lose so much business that they actually lobby for something to be done about the wasteful regulatory overhead in the US which is making them uncompetitive.

pacofvf 8y ago

We have socialized health care, so you may think that you spend some dollars on the Mexican economy but, the American Caravan distorts our markets and drive prices up.

kingofhdds 8y ago
All kinds of foreign tourists drive prices up for a lot of things, but nevertheless they really bring money to Mexican economy.
- pacofvf 8y ago
  But tourists drive prices up for markets that aren't regulated like hotels or restaurants, Healthcare is regulated and we will probably see some kind of legislation towards this issue with the new Mexican government, it probably will make it even cheaper for you guys to come here but you will have to enroll on our socialized healthcare.
deogeo 8y ago
You are mistaken - I was assured by many sources in the media that immigration, even temporary, has no down-sides.

gammateam 8y ago

This is an article about medical tourism. Its the same article no matter which country people are traveling to. The fact that it is about Mexico or Latin America at all enables political comparisons for perspective. Its an irony or tragedy when people can't get care in their host country with stronger infrastructure in other places.

noonespecial 8y ago
>This is an article about medical tourism. Precisely. Which is why I found the article's repeated attempts to conflate refugees and tourists to be so transparently disingenuous. Those political comparisons are completely orthogonal. It has been more than a little educational to ride the F5 key and watch the karma on my original post bounce like a pogo stick!
- gammateam 8y ago
  Analogies compare to dissimilar things with common attributes, and it is up to you to figure out what the common attributes are. Not the dissimilarities. I think there is some utility to these comparisons, as they are orthogonal, the hyperbole drives the point home.
AnthonyMouse 8y ago
> Its an irony or tragedy when people can't get care in their host country with stronger infrastructure in other places. Except that that isn't really it. It's that it's more subsidized in one place than the other. If it's $200 here and $100 there, and it's exactly the same thing, who doesn't want to save $100? That's true even for people who can afford the price here. Probably what Mexico should be doing is charging separate prices to foreign nationals.
- ap3 8y ago
  Mexico isn’t charging anything- it’s the individual providers setting up shop in a border town to cater to American patients. They can and do charge more but competition drives prices down.
  - AnthonyMouse 8y ago
    I don't know enough about the healthcare system in Mexico to tell you exactly why the prices are lower there, but it's likely to be one of two things. One is they have some kind of government funding or other subsidies for healthcare providers there, in which case they should look for a way to direct their funding to their own population and not rich foreigners looking for lower prices. The other is that the regulatory environment in the US creates unnecessary costs that don't exist in Mexico and people are naturally taking advantage of the lower overhead. That actually seems pretty plausible given what the regulations look like in the US. But in that case Mexico doesn't need to do anything and everyone who can should try to get their healthcare in Mexico, until such time as the US providers lose so much business that they actually lobby for something to be done about the wasteful regulatory overhead in the US which is making them uncompetitive.