Mexican migrants in US to be offered health insurance by Mexico
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FORMER BORDER PATROL OFFICERS
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Foreign News Report
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National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO) extracts
and condenses the material that follows from Mexican and Central and
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Saturday 9/12/09
La Cronica de Hoy 9/4/09
Mexican migrants in US to be offered health insurance by Mexico
(Though a week old, this story has now gained new currency).
Mexican immigrants in the US will be able to enroll themselves and
their families in Mexico in the health insurance of their own country
through their consulates in the United States. This is a new measure
of the Mexican government to insure the 2.3 million Mexicans who still
lack access to health care, according to Mexico’s Secretary of Health.
Dr. Jose Angel Cordoba Villalobos pointed out that the new plan will
enable Mexican workers in the US who support their families in Mexico
to offer their relatives at home the benefits of medical care and also
benefit themselves when they return. ”We know that many migrants come
to the US because they have no work. And on many occasions, have not
had the time or the knowledge of the existence of public insurance,”
said Villalobos. ”What this is about is that there exists a guarantee
of attention.”
Public insurance in Mexico began in 2003 for those who were self
employed and for the unemployed who lacked access to the health system.
Villalobos said that of the 12.5 million Mexicans presently eligible
for the insurance, 10 million use it. Those migrants who enroll in the
Mexican public insurance from consulates in the US can only receive
medical attention in Mexico.
Additionally, the Mexican government is working on the creation of
a private insurance to be offered in the US for medical attention to
immigrants. The pilot program will be tried with some 3,500 temporary
workers in the Yakima Valley in Washington State. ”We are coming to
negotiate and to see in what way we can support them,” Villalobos said
of the trial insurance plan.
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