Latin Americans are coming to the US fleeing violence and poverty, much of it caused by destructive US trade policy over the course of decades. But there’s another massive “border crossing” which is rarely mentioned and something Trump has not said a word about it - the thousands of US citizens crossing the border each day in search of affordable health care.
At just one checkpoint in Yuma, Arizona, up to 6,000 Americans cross the border every day and very many enter the bustling Mexican town of Los Algodones, seeking heath care. Los Algodones welcomes Americans seeking dental care with open arms. Los Algodones has to be seen to believed. There are more dentists per capita than anywhere else in the world. It seems like every square foot of public space wall is covered with advertisements promising quality and affordable dental care, vision care and prescription drugs. The community’s economy is built to serve the flood of “dental refugees” — mostly senior citizens from the US and Canada seeking major dental care they cannot afford in their own countries, even with insurance.
“When we get out of school, we have to pay the government, but we do it by one year of free service, and that’s it,” Miguel Ibarreche of the Sani Dental Group, one of Mexico’s largest dental clinic companies, told NPR.
According to US Customs and Border Protection, border crossings of Mexican and Central American refugees — the border crossings Trump and Fox News rage about 24/7 — ranged from 20,000 to roughly 60,000 people per month in 2018. In Los Algodones alone, nearly five times as many American dental refugees are going the opposite way. To get an idea of the absurdity, one could argue there are more people currently fleeing the US’s health care system than refugees seeking asylum from extreme violence and state terror in Central America.
Refugees trek across hundreds of miles of unforgiving desert, vulnerable to exploitation and violence from human smugglers and at risk of family separation, cruel treatment and death in custody of US border agents. By contrast, US citizens seeking health care can park in Yuma for $5, walk across the border, get the help they need and come back for dinner. The American healthcare system denies its citizens affordable treatment but its immigration policy allows these desperate US citizens to get the help they need while denying it to those coming the other way.
At just one checkpoint in Yuma, Arizona, up to 6,000 Americans cross the border every day and very many enter the bustling Mexican town of Los Algodones, seeking heath care. Los Algodones welcomes Americans seeking dental care with open arms. Los Algodones has to be seen to believed. There are more dentists per capita than anywhere else in the world. It seems like every square foot of public space wall is covered with advertisements promising quality and affordable dental care, vision care and prescription drugs. The community’s economy is built to serve the flood of “dental refugees” — mostly senior citizens from the US and Canada seeking major dental care they cannot afford in their own countries, even with insurance.
Approximately 74 million people in the US have no dental insurance, according to the National Association of Dental Plans. To put those numbers into perspective, that’s nearly a quarter of the population, or roughly twice the number that lacks health insurance overall. But the problem is much larger than people lacking dental insurance. Dental insurance is not really insurance. It’s nothing like health or auto insurance, for example. Most dental plans don’t cover much at all beyond regular check-ups, cleaning, X-rays and fillings. Beyond that, patients are expected to fork over much of the cost of large but common procedures like crowns, root canals and implants. Dental plans also generally pay a maximum of $1,500 annually, a number that’s hardly changed in 50 years. And $1,500 doesn’t go far when you consider the cost of major dental work. The cost of a single crown can be as much as $2,000 and the cost of an implant can run $5,000 a tooth. It’s not uncommon for seniors to need a set of four implants and several crowns, so you can see the costs can quickly get prohibitive.
Dental work in Mexico is on average two-thirds less than in the US and customers may save 80 percent or more on some costly operations. Those savings derive partially from Mexico’s less expensive real estate and labor costs, but also, Mexico’s dentists don’t graduate with a ton of student debt. “When we get out of school, we have to pay the government, but we do it by one year of free service, and that’s it,” Miguel Ibarreche of the Sani Dental Group, one of Mexico’s largest dental clinic companies, told NPR.
According to US Customs and Border Protection, border crossings of Mexican and Central American refugees — the border crossings Trump and Fox News rage about 24/7 — ranged from 20,000 to roughly 60,000 people per month in 2018. In Los Algodones alone, nearly five times as many American dental refugees are going the opposite way. To get an idea of the absurdity, one could argue there are more people currently fleeing the US’s health care system than refugees seeking asylum from extreme violence and state terror in Central America.
Refugees trek across hundreds of miles of unforgiving desert, vulnerable to exploitation and violence from human smugglers and at risk of family separation, cruel treatment and death in custody of US border agents. By contrast, US citizens seeking health care can park in Yuma for $5, walk across the border, get the help they need and come back for dinner. The American healthcare system denies its citizens affordable treatment but its immigration policy allows these desperate US citizens to get the help they need while denying it to those coming the other way.
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