Every body wants to know about the famous pharmacies here in Mexico — especially those of retirement age. Can you really get your medicine over the counter at a fraction of the cost? The answer is yes… and no. …
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Living or retiring in Mexico, if you don’t feel comfortable taking all of the risk for payment of your health services through private coverage, you could opt to pay for a formal health care insurance plan that would cover you in case of unforeseen, large expenses. These plans are sold by insurance agents and paid to large companies such as ING or Mapfre.
Retired people will know that when you are over 64 you can no longer qualify for coverage. It’s the same in Mexico. If you are under 64, here is a basic outline of formal healthcare insurance in Mexico.
There are two plan types, which are generally sold as seperate policies. The first is “Gastos Medicos Mayores” (Major Medical Expenses) and the other is “Gastos Medicos Menores” (Minor Medical Expenses).
“Mayores” is for the big stuff like accidents and long term sicknesses. …
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“Menores” is for the yearly stuff such as doctor’s visits, preventative health, lab tests, etc. …
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Back to Retirement in Mexico: Private versus Public Health Care
My personal wish for everyone who comes to live or retire in Mexico is that they don’t have to use IMSS. I had IMSS as a “benefit” when I worked as a regular, full-time employee (this is called nomina) at a language school in Cuernavaca.
All IMSS personnel and facilities are serving about 5 times as many people as they should be expected to serve. Under these conditions, even professional, kind people cannot give good care. You will hear that the best doctors work for IMSS, which I don’t doubt is true, but because of the under staffing and underfunding and Mexican version of the good-old-boy network, those doctors end up serving their acquaintances and clients who know them through their part-time private practices.
I was quite under-joyed with my so-called benefits. For retired people from the U.S. and Canada, the reality of IMSS is quite shocking; even dangerous.
If you want to, stop reading right here. I don’ t have anything good to say about IMSS — especially not for retired people, who may actually need to use the service. In fact, you may not even qualify for it. See Mexico Connect to read about the exclusions.
If you feel the need to read the bad news, let me start by telling you about how IMSS almost killed my husband.
When my husband broke his arm he was brought to the IMSS emergency room where they set his shattered bone without anesthetic and then put him in intensive care with no blanket. When I got there he was shivering from shock and there were no blankets available, but they lied about it and said that “the laundry would come in the afternoon.”
I stood there in the center of the circular intensive care bay and scanned the open-ended cubicles surrounding me. Each patient had a different type of blanket. None of them seemed institutional. They were crocheted, fuzzy — all looked distinctly brought from home. Just coming down from shock myself (I had just come from the scene of the accident were the police didn’t bother to tell me how my husband was, but I could see the state of the vehicles that had been involved in the accident.) I went out to the street and around the block to a public phone (there are none inside) and called a friend who lived nearby and asked her to bring a blanket that she didn’t care if she didn’t get it back.
The light in the bathroom on the intensive care floor was out and my husband had to leave the door cracked to pee. His shoes had been removed by the ambulance staff, so he stood on the floor, sticky from pee, in his socks. I could smell the reek of urine from outside. No soap nor paper were provided.
Two beds were crammed into each cubicle designed for one. The lady next to him had the tubing for her bag of blood draping over him.
After a day, he was transfered to normal care where no pillows were provided to elevate his arm. Once a day a doctor would come and say that they were waiting for the swelling to go down on his arm in order to pin and cast his shattered arm bones, but they continued to leave his arm down by his side. (No, I didn’t figure out that we had to elevate it because I was running around getting soap, toilette paper, and clothes for my husband and a lawyer to help us get through the attacks by the insurance company and the public assistance people who were saying that they were there for our protection, but getting belligerent. I learned later, from the lawyer that they were posturing for bribes.)
No food was given to him because he was “going into surgery” but the surgery wasn’t even scheduled yet. I have no idea what would have happened because the insurance of the person who caused the accident finally kicked in and my husband was transfered to a private hospital where he was immediately prepped for surgery and I cried spontaneous tears of relief.
The line to enroll at and do other paperwork at my clinic is usually long. A 30 minute wait is normal. You’ll see elderly people standing there on their swollen feet.
Once you get inside, there is one row of plastic chairs along the wall, facing the little reception desks for each little doctor’s office. The plastic chairs are full, and people who can’t get a seat stand up. The receptionists are grumpy.
The floors are so dirty it looks like — I can’t think of another place where I’ve ever seen floors so dirty. You can see black dirt caked thick wherever people’s feet don’t keep it thin. …
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I have more horror stories than these, but I think that is enough to make it clear that I would not recommend living or retiring in Mexico if IMSS were to be your only source of health care services.
Back to Retirement in Mexico and Health Care
or
Back to Retirement in Mexico and Health Care: Private Hospitals
Without getting into details, I’ll tell you one of my experiences with a dishonest doctor so that you’ll know what to watch out for when you live or retire in Mexico.
I got a referral for a doctor from a fellow expatriate from the U.S. The doctor charged a moderate amount on the pay scale (300 pesos per visit) and was a gentle, friendly person.
The author of this website has prepared an e-book that honestly talks about expat life in Mexico.
At first I was very pleased with this doctor, but eventually came to a crucial cross-roads with him. I asked him for information about a condition that I thought I might have. He used that opening to withhold information from me about tests available from local laborartories and to recommend that he perform an expensive, invasive, and unnecessary surgery on me. …
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In addition to the huge difference in the morals exhibited by these two doctors, there was a difference in the professionalism demonstrated by their receptionists. The former doctor’s receptionists would make appointments for times such as 6:30 and 7:00, but when I got to the office, I would wait until 9:00 p.m. to see the doctor. If it was because he was regularly detained, why did they not use my phone number which they had in their appointment book to call me and ask me if I’d like to arrive later or reschedule my appointment? As a retired person, I’m sure you don’t want to sit and get flat-butt in a waiting room for hours.
At the honest doctor’s office I wait….
The rest of this section has been moved to Mexico: The Trick is Living Here (Second Edition).
When you live or retire in Mexico, get referrals from friends and acquaintances, but be your own advocate. It may be necessary to switch doctors in order to get the kind of care you deserve.
Savvy retired people will be asking, where do these private doctors treat their patients in emergencies? The answer is that there is an extensive system of private hospitals at which private doctors provide services. Just like doctors, the hospitals vary in cost, quality, and variety of services provided.
At first, these hospitals will strike the recently retired in Mexico as more like clinics. They are generally small, often converted buildings with jury-rigged ramps, etc. Each hospital hires it’s own receptionists, nursing staff, and cleaning staff. They also own the equipment there, such as X-ray machines and other things that most of us take for granted will be at hospitals.
One of the reasons Mexicans give for having IMSS insurance is that the large IMSS hospitals in Mexico city are better equipped than private hospitals. They reason that, if they are at a hospital, they want to be sure that the necessary equipment will be available on location.
If you have a special condition, such as diabetes, it would be smart to list all of the hospital equipment that you may need….
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Back to Retirement in Mexico and Health Care
What is at the heart of festivals in Mexico? Mexican festivals have something special that those of us non-Mexicans just have to experience to understand. Santa Maria Ahuacatilan, Morelos is the place to experience church centered community celebration. This little town just north of Cuernavaca is maintaining its festival traditions into the 21st century. For me the highlights of these celebrations are the castillos.
Castillos are temporary towers covered with fireworks, which light up in pre-planned succession displaying colored images, shooting golden sparks, spinning, and smoking before the crowd of onlookers. Every stage of the Castillo display brings out a sigh of delight as butterflies turn into swans, and Virgin Maries glow above text imploring her prayers.
Castillos are part of many different church celebrations throughout Mexico, but the ones in Santa Maria go far beyond the ordinary, with two or three towers, spinning crowns, and images that transform as they burn. They are so well done in Santa Maria that we try to enjoy them all throughout the year with our family. I encourage you to visit Santa Maria during one of its many festivals (listed below).
Arriving in Santa Maria in the afternoon on the day that a castillo will be lit you’ll find the streets bordering on the church yard full. The cobble stones turn your ankles slightly as you thread through the crowd past the mobile bread bakeries and their warm, sweet smells. The sales people offer you a piece of bread so you can tear off a chunk and try its tender, lightly sweetened flavor. You can buy two large loaves of nut bread with sesame seeds sprinkled on the top for $25 pesos and if you check around a bit you can get some that are still warm from the oven. You will also pass potato chip sales carts and corn on the cob stands where you can get your corn on a stick slathered with your choice of a combination of mayonnaise, cheese, and chili or salt and lemon. Further down the road the mechanical rides for children fill the streets so much that you have to squeeze between them and the walls of the bordering houses.
In the church yard of the Iglesia Santa Maria de la Asuncion, the Mexican cypress trees stand tall over the castillo assembly process. Men use a huge jack to stack cubes made of 1 by 1s one on top of the other. As the tower grows upward, they assemble the various wire racks, mounted with hand-packed fireworks that will be the display.
You can spend the afternoon by enjoying mass, resting in the church yard, playing on the rides, and eating the various treats being sold. At nine o’clock it’s dark and it’s time to be in the loosely packed crowd in the church yard because the lights are turned out and the castillo is about to be lit. Choose a spot toward the back of the crowd for safety and be ready to be pleasantly surprised.
This year’s Palm Sunday castillo display was initiated by the sucking boom of a large firework being shot out of a launch tube to the left of the crowd. We flinched in surprise, then looked up to see a purple and golden plume blooming overhead while the crackle of fireworks filled the air. Next the middle tower of the castillo in front of us lit up showing a glowing peacock, spinning slowly on its mount. The show went on with a band playing on a stage visible over the church yard wall, the fireworks alternating with the displays on the castillo until there was a grand finale of fountains of golden sparks raining down from all three towers of the castillo and multicolored fireworks booming and crackling overhead. We were squinting against the amount of acidic gunpowder smoke billowing around us, smiling, and keeping a weather eye out for hot cinders raining down over the crowd.
Every castillo display is different and worth seeing. You simply cannot imagine one until you’ve experienced it. I must warn you though that first you’ll think they are too dangerous to enjoy but after you’ve seen one of Santa Maria’s unique displays, 4th of July fireworks in the U.S. will pale in comparison. (Safety note: If you come to see a castillo in Santa Maria you should leave the church yard as soon as the castillo is over because another fun, but much more dangerous tradition of running with firework covered paper Mache bulls follows immediately. You must be careful at the gate because the crowd packs into the gateway pushing to avoid these flaming bulls.)
Naturally, it is the people of Santa Maria that make their castillos and all the rest of their celebrations special. To find out more about their elaborate system of festivals I talked to Claudia Cruz Flores (approximately 25 years old) who has lived kiddy corner to the church yard in central Santa Maria all of her life and carries the traditions in her heart.
Claudia listed the following festivals: San José, 15 days before Palm Sunday; San Ramos, Palm Sunday; Virgen de los Dolores, Friday before Easter; Señor de la Caña Xoquitzingo, Easter Sunday; La Virgen de la Asuncion from August 1st to the 16th; Dia de la Santa Cruz, May 3rd; La Virgen de Guadalupe, May 10th; and there are more, but she couldn’t remember them off the top of her head. Her favorite festival is the one in August which celebrates La Virgin de la Asuncion, which is the patron saint of Santa Maria.
This festival is especially elaborate and fun. There are activities ongoing throughout the two weeks, which culminate on the night of the 15th and the morning of the 16th. Claudia described how on the 14th of August, they lift the virgin down from her place above the altar to spend time with her for 2 days. At around 4:00 pm a group of people goes to the house where a new dress has been prepared for the virgin by community women. They dance and walk to the church carrying the new dress, accompanied by a band. At the church, a group of only women dresses her in her new dress for the year, while the band plays for the virgin.
The band plays the song “Las Mañanitas” (”Little Mornings”) which is traditionally sung to people who are being celebrated, such as when it is someone’s birthday or to moms on Mother’s Day. (See http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/travel/dpalfrey/dpmananitas.html for the original Spanish version and an English translation.) At 6:00 pm the church is closed and decorated with flowers so that it will be beautiful for her.
At midnight everyone in town goes into the church and offers the virgin her first Mañanitas accompanied by a Mariachi band. (That’s how Claudia says it; they don’t “sing to” the virgin, they “offer” her the song.) After the mariachi band plays different local bands each take turns entering the church and all singing Mañanitas until 2 or 3 in the morning. Claudia has been part of a group that sings and plays musical instruments (called estudiantinos) for 10 years. As part of “Resurrección” Claudia sings to the virgin in the wee hours of the morning.
Claudia’s favorite things about all the celebrations throughout the year are the decorations in the church which are made from natural flowers. For each festival a particular house is selected to host the decorating. The young people are invited to come and help create the decorations three days in advance of the festival. They even go up to the pine forest and collect natural materials to be used in the arrangements. Working side by side, friends and family prepare the floral arrangements. Later, when they are placed in the church, Claudia likes to see the work of people she knows on display.
As you can guess, it’s not just the flower arrangements that are organized and prepared by members of the community. It’s every aspect of the festival. Each neighborhood is responsible for a different festival. Representatives of the neighborhoods who know the traditions go from house to house collecting donations to pay for the decorations, fireworks, castillos, and other items.
Many people also make personal pledges. For example, they may pledge 1,000 pesos (approximately $100 US dollars and over a week’s salary for many people). They can pay their pledge amounts all at once just before the festival or they may pay it 100 pesos at a time throughout the year. If they don’t fulfill their pledge, then they have a sense of having failed their patron saint. This is part of an individual’s personal relationship with God. For the celebration for the town’s patron saint on the 15th of August, every family in town has to pay a pre-set amount. Claudia gave $150 pesos as an example. She says that not everyone chooses to give money, but that those that do participate respect their choice to decline.
The festivals in Santa Maria are also part of a broader community. Members of two communities a little further up the mountainside, Topilejo and Gualupita come to celebrate and bring pledges as well. They may bring cash or may ask what is needed at the church such as vases for flowers. The priest is responsible for allocating the money according to the parishioner’s requests. Santa Maria returns this favor by sending committees in support of the other villages during their festivals.
I asked Claudia to tell me some of her memories of the festivals throughout her life. She told me that even though her house is only 50 meters from the corner of the church yard, she got lost once when she was little. The crowd was so thick that she became separated from her family and couldn’t figure out how to get home. She remembers standing near the gate to the church yard crying until her parents came back for her. Her memories as a teenager are of making decorations and bringing the virgin’s dress to the church on August 14th. She says that it was her grandparents, born and raised in Santa Maria, who got her and her siblings and cousins interested in participating in the festivals. They would invite them to attend masses and go to the preparations.
So, if there is a desire to travel to Mexico in your heart, come in August (or for Easter or in May), and see the celebrations in Santa Maria. You can stay in Cuernavaca because Santa Maria is 5 minutes up the non-toll highway (called the libre) connecting Cuernavaca to Mexico City. It is so close to Cuernavaca that a really good option is to take the bus route number 12. The creativity, generosity, and enthusiasm of the people of Santa Maria are sure to touch your heart.
