»
Health Net and Consulate General of Mexico in Los Angeles Address Health Care Gap among Latinos; First-Ever Cross-Border Plans for Individuals and Families Mexico Destination Guide >
Mexico News >
Health Net and Consulate General of Mexico in Los Angeles Address Health Care Gap among Latinos; First-Ever Cross-Border Plans for Individuals and Families
Health Net of California, in collaboration with theConsul General of Mexico, today introduced new and innovative productsand services specifically addressing the Latino health care gap inCalifornia.
The Mexi-Plan program and the Health Net Cross-Border Individualand Family Plans are the first-ever cross-border health care plansavailable to individual consumers who purchase benefits directly frominsurers. Both are part of Salud con Health Net, Health Net’sgroundbreaking initiative providing health care coverage and financialsecurity to the Latino community.
Mexi-Plan was developed through a unique collaboration betweenHealth Net and the Mexican Consulate General in Los Angeles to respondto the health care needs of Mexican immigrants who reside in LosAngeles, Orange and Ventura counties. It is one of five Health Netcross-border plans for individuals and their families.
“Our priority is to help the Mexican immigrant community in theU.S. get the information and resources they need to improve theirquality of life,” said Mexican Consul General Ruben Beltran. “Wecongratulate Health Net for launching Mexi-Plan, and we are confidentthat this will help eliminate two main obstacles to accessing healthcare: high cost and limited coverage.”
More: finanzen.net
Doctor visits outsourced to Mexico
There are world-class hospitals in San Diego, not far from where Luis Gonzales lives. But when he or a member of his family needs routine health services, they drive 50 miles south to a clinic in Tijuana.
The Gonzaleses are members of a Blue Shield of California HMO that provides all of the family's nonemergency care in Mexico. They are among 20,000 California workers and their dependents in health plans that cost 40 to 50 percent less than comparable care in the United States because the doctor's visits are outsourced south of the border.
With health-care costs
Insurance plans send patients to Mexico
A more cost-effective health care plan for southern California's Latino workers has employees going south of the border to see a doctor.
Insurance companies say about 160,000 workers visit doctors in Mexico to take advantage of the low premiums and co-pays, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Some executives as well as farmers, service industry employees and municipal employees in San Diego and Imperial counties are enrolled in the insurance plans.
Although conditions aren't as pristine as major U.S. hospitals, patients have voiced little complaint and have reported doctors spend more time with them.
They also like to be
California health costs send patients to Mexico facilities
There are world-class hospitals in San Diego, not far from where Luis Gonzales lives. But when he or a member of his family needs routine health services, they drive 50 miles south to a clinic in Tijuana.
The Gonzaleses are members of a Blue Shield of California HMO that provides the family's nonemergency care in Mexico. They are among 20,000 California workers and dependents in plans that cost 40 to 50 percent less than comparable care in the United States because doctor's visits are outsourced south of the border.
With healthcare costs in the
'Latinos and obesity' topic of U.S.-Mexico health task force
The Fresno County Binational Health Task Force and the Department of Health Science at Fresno State will join the commemoration of the 5th annual U.S.-Mexico Binational Health Week with a forum on Latinos and obesity Oct. 12 at Fresno State.
The program, “Obesity: The Silent Epidemic in Latino Communities,†will be from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in University Center, Room 200. Parking restrictions will be relaxed in Lot D.
Speakers are Fresno State faculty members Dr. Helda Pinzon-Perez and Dr. Felicia Greer, plus Dr. Jose Gallegos Martinez, a staff physician at the Hospital
Ca. health plans send patients to Mexico
A trip to the doctor means a trip across the border for thousands of California workers and their dependents.
They are enrolled in health plans like Blue Shield of California HMO that cost up to 50 percent less than other plans because the doctor's visits are outsourced to Mexico, the Washington Post reported.
California is the only state to regulate insurance programs that require border crossing for basic health care.
More than 700 non-agricultural businesses in California offer plans requiring treatment in Mexico. Hundreds of farms offer similar coverage for about 120,000 migrant laborers.
Texas physicians successfully fought
Mexico plans cleaner fuel near border
In a measure aimed at improving air quality along the northern border, Mexico's top environmental official yesterday announced the introduction of cleaner low-sulfur diesel fuel in the region by 2007, a year ahead of the rest of the country.
The ultra-low-sulfur diesel will bring significant health benefits, said José Luis Luege Tamargo, Mexico's secretary for Environment and Natural Resources, speaking at a session of Border 2012, a binational 10-year program that seeks to address health and environmental issues on the U.S.-Mexico border.
The change means that northern Mexico will be only months behind the United
Mexico Reaches Accord With Health-Care Workers, Averting Strike
Mexico has reached an agreement with leaders of a union representing its Social Security Institute, avoiding a strike that threatened to suspend health care for 42.5 million Mexicans this month, President Vicente Fox said.
Union leaders late last night agreed to accept a 4 percent pay increase and a government promise to hire 65,000 additional workers, said Leopoldo Perez Priego, assistant to union leader Roberto Vega Galina in a telephone interview from Mexico City. The union also agreed to raise worker pension contributions to 4 percent of their salaries, an amount that will
Fugitives from Mexico hide in the bustle of Los Angeles
The killers cross the U.S.-Mexico border, assume new identities, get jobs, blend in among Spanish speakers and sometimes enjoy freedom for years.
But these fugitives from the law aren't border-jumpers heading south. As the recent arrest of one of Mexico's most notorious fugitives at a modest home outside Los Angeles showed, some criminals escape justice by heading north.
In the last 10 months, federal immigration officials have helped locate 13 Mexican murder suspects, along with hundreds of other criminals, hiding in plain sight in the Los Angeles area.
Alfredo RÃos Galeana,
Mexico plans response to bird-flu mutation
Mexican Health Secretary Julio Frenk on Thursday announced a national response plan in the event that the bird flu now affecting parts of Asia turns into a human pandemic.
The plan, a joint effort between numerous Mexican federal agencies, includes Mexico on a list of the first countries that would receive a vaccine against a human strain of the flu -- when and if it is developed.
It also sets aside $55 million that will be partly used to invest in technology that would enable Mexico to develop such a vaccine in the future.
The money also will
Mexico is overstepping boundaries on immigration
DIPLOMACY may be the art of lying for one's country, but Mexican diplomacy requires taking that art to virtuosic heights. Sitting in his expansive office in Mexico's Los Angeles consulate, Deputy Consul General Mario Velazquez-Suarez insists that he and his peers do not interfere in U.S. internal affairs, including immigration matters. "Immigration is an internal discussion," he says.
But it's not quite true. Mexican officials in the United States and abroad interfere almost daily in U.S. sovereignty.
The meddling starts with Mexico's comic book-style guide to breaching the border safely and evading detection once across. The Foreign
