Commentary by Bruce Kellison
What effect might national healthcare reform have on Texas-Mexico border communities? What reform initiatives to improve healthcare outcomes along the border should be included in the healthcare reform debate? A new article in Texas Business Review by Nuria Homedes and Antonio Ugalde looks at healthcare along the border from a bi-national perspective. Perhaps surprisingly, a large number of people from both countries cross the border to obtain health services in the U.S. and Mexico, but for different reasons: wealthy Mexicans come to the U.S. for high-end or elective services, whereas U.S. residents, often the uninsured, go to Mexico to save money on routine medical procedures or simply to *find* services that are in short supply in colonias and other areas along the U.S. side of the border. Among other recommendations, the authors call for increased coordination between Mexican and U.S. health authorities to more effectively deliver healthcare services to border populations.