Considering Moving to Mexico; complex medical issues - please advise

Hi, this information is concerning Mexico.

First, the Visa requirements, you must talk to the Mexican consulate or embassy near you to confirm that you can have the residency visa or not.
Second, if you look to work in Mexico this is very complex, talk again to the Mexican consulate or embassy.
Third, see also the requirements for moving household goods.
Fourth, mexican medical coverage can be obtain once you have the Mexican resident status. Private doctors can follow your conditions and provide appropriate medications.
Fifth, they are many good areas to retire in Mexico.
Sixth, since I am Canadian, I don't know about IRS taxation for Expats, so you should talk to your accountant or IRS on moving permanently to a foreign country. (FATCA rules).

Buena suerte, GyC.

You have a very complex set of issues there. Mexicogic has answered many of the questions about where to get specific information.

What I can add is that the medical care here is good. Star medical in Merida is one of the more advanced facilities, but not the only one. What I also know is that not all drugs used in the U.S. are easily available here.
I am a retired medical professional , and I have met several doctors here. Many are bilingual. I am more involved in the functional medical approach, so I do not see them, but I had a family member who was diagnosed with cancer,so I communicated with the doctors here until he died.

I was impressed with their knowledge, and skill as well as flexibility. So if I were you, I would try to find a doctor immediately should you chose to live here. I'm afraid your medical issues might limit where you could find regular care. Of the three places you mentioned I would say Merida would be the most likely.

Have you evaluated Canada ? They would be sure to have the medications and they are quite close.

if political turmoil is an issue you dont want to go to mexico

Professor X   
Thank you for sharing so intimately your story and situation.   I trust you will make the right choice for your move.

There is and will be political turmoil almost every where currently.

There is a difference between turmoil ,and terror due to fear of being attacked or singled out for attack. Professor X is indicating that level of fear. I don't think any of us living in Mexico feel that. I know I don't or I wouldn't be here.

Can you get your med's via mail?  If so you could have them mailed to a forwarding service in the US and then have them sent to you.  Many people just across the border with Baja have mail sent to a San Diego address and pick it up once a week or so.  I think that's what we plan to do as I'm pretty sure we will be driving over to SD at least once a week or so.

or you can just look at the Jewish site where you will see this:

"Some of the most vibrant Jewish neighborhoods in North America exist “South of the Border” in Mexico, where over 40,000 Jews have created a close-knit, distinct community."

Some of the sites you may be referring to also claim anti American problems. There may be some, but neither I or anyone I have talked to know about it.

The first one of the articles Katzgar cited was from July 1, 1930. Another is an incident from 2012, I think that's digging a little too deep. I have lived in Mexico for 23 years, and have traveled widely. I have not seen or experienced any anti-Jewish sentiment.

True, it isn't hard to Google, but do you believe everything you read?

As Babs says the negative articles are not what we are experiencing. The internet can provide any slant you want to search for. 

It's not someones opinion about what it might be like in Mexico that we are talking about, but what people actually living in Mexico, and actually knowing Mexicans experience.

Do you live in Mexico Katzgar ? or do you still live in Seattle and read about what is happening here? There is a major difference.

Thanks for clearing things up. You get your information from the internet, and you do not live in Mexico.

I think we are straying from the topic; why don't we get back to Professor X and her problems?

Exactly, and I believe that is just what is happening.

Good idea, Babbs.   It would be nice to keep things on a positive note!

Hi everybody,

Just to inform you that some off topic posts have been removed from this thread.

Lets focus on the initiator's problem please and let's try to help her.

Thanks a lot for your understanding,

Priscilla

Professor X,

I am retired college instructor also, with an ongoing medical condition as well.  I live in a small coastal village in Baja, México.  I have joined a private hospital group with connections to a variety of top medical specialists.  I have found that almost all medications are available in large pharmacy chains.  My doctors tell me that all medicines except antibiotics can be obtained without a prescription.  You might call a pharmacy and ask them if your prescriptions are available.  They are computerized and will look it up.

In my expat community there are many secular Jewish neighbors I consider dear friends.  There is no anti-Jewish anything.  My particular community strongly expresses the simular political values as your own.  We do not fear political unrest despite the current Mexican President's unpopularity.

I can only speak of my limited experience in Baja, but I suspect that you would be welcome and happy in Mexico.  My suggestion is to find out about your potential community before you buy to make certain that you are comfortable with your neighbors as we tend to have stronger community bonds as expats.  I know of many people who wish they had purchased in my area where we are liberal and predominantly progressive.  There is a neighborly bond.

Best of luck to you and your husband.

Hi,
I appreciated your comments about your community on the Baja Coast, and also regarding medical care. When you mentioned prescription drugs, did you mean that one might contact her local pharmacy in the US, for example, and have the list of prescriptions sent to a local pharmacy in her new home village or town in Mexico?

Also, I'm a bit divided about living in either Puerto Vallarta or on Baja Sur, circa San Jose del Cabo. Do you have any comments about differences between the two, which seem to me rather broad. In particular, the cost of living interests me. Is Baja Sur cost of living about the same as PV?

Many thanks again for your comments.

~ Skye Moody

I'm in Mexico and also a "secular" or "cultural" Jew.  I take a lot of meds. 

I have not experienced any antiSemitism in 8 years here while living in 2 cities, traverlling widely and making friends, acquaintenances and contacts.  On the contrary, people have expressed curiosity about exactly what is a Jew to which I respond openly but lightly.

Narcotics (there is almost no permitted use outside hospitals and dentists offices), antibiotics and drugs that you can class with Xanax do require prescriptions.  There are non narcotic analgesics in use that fall between narcotic and NSAID level effectiveness.  Mexican friends seem to do fine on the local protocols. Everything else you can get over the counter.  If you'll be in Mexico soon, you can check at most chain pharmacies like Farmacias Guadalajara or Benavides.  If it's only two items, message me with the brand names and generic names and I can check since my landlord is an MD.  Larger cities, 500,000 or more, have excellent medical services.

Mexico has political unrest forever, it seems.  Expats accept a somewhat greater level of risk but it's probably unmeasureable.

Good luck wherever you decide

I am moving to Baja in 2023, probably Ensenada but possibly Rosarito. I am planning to get my health insurance in California (and then Medicare at 65) and make periodic trips there to pick up prescription medications -- no more than a 90-day supply at a time. Obviously, we will be driving back and forth across the border at Tijuana. It is my understanding that there should not be a problem entering back into Mexico with my medications. Can anyone on this thread please verify this? Is anyone already doing it. I have also thought about calling the U.S. consulate in Tijuana and possibly the Mexican consulate in San Diego. Thank you for your help.

Bienvenida ,  I have never had a problem entering or leaving Mexico with Medications.  They recommend you bring you prescription.  Never been asked for that.  Unless you have really good insurance , you may find your meds cheaper to buy in Mexico.  I am an American and lived in Rosarito and now Puerto Vallarta for 8 years.

I understand your medical concerns, and hope I can assuage your concerns.

I think you will find it easy to establish a relationship with a physician here in Mexico. Absent that, some pharmacies even keep a Dr. on-site to facilitate your needs. They can write a prescription  to be filled immediately.

Benzodiazapines require a prescription in Mexico, many medications do not. It is possible to establish an ongoing relationship with a pharmacy so that a prescription written locally is filled in perpetuity.

I recommend keeping a letter from your American Dr., both hard copy and on your phone. This will serve to overcome concerns that your need for a particular medication may not be legitimate. This is peace of mind for you and the pharmacy.

Avoid physicians in Mexico who work with pharmacies providing you with a single prescription to be filled at a specific pharmacy. In my experience this means continuing to pay both the Dr. and the pharmacy for a refill, often at an inflated price.

Not all medications are available in Mexico, so verify. Then be assured you will find obtaining your maintenance prescriptions very simple, and inexpensive.

Professor_X wrote:

Hello (I am cross-posting this in part from another forum and hope that is okay),

I am widely traveled and am not sure where to post, precisely, to a particular country forum since I am open to the issue of expatriating and do not have a particular country settled on yet since this will likely be determined by ongoing medical conditions that I have coped with, which are treatable but which require heavier medication, which I've found perfectly fine care for for twenty years here in the United States. Bear with me and please listen and help since I cannot find what I am looking for online, to date, and the world is very much wide open as far as I am concerned.

I am an educator, own my home, and live in the US, and my spouse and I have talked about expatriating for the past ten years. We travel every year with an eye for whether or not we might live someplace. What we've found is that we are very open minded and could easily see ourselves relocating to so many places. I've particularly enjoyed France (we're both fluent in French), Mexico (particularly the Yucatan, where we have spent about six weeks, and also Chiapas; we both speak beginner Spanish, enough to get around), Turkey (which seems a little uneasy right now), Sweden, Northern Italy, Asia, and Iceland. We learn languages easily.

I particularly love Mérida, Celestun, Chiapas, and all of the less touristy parts of the Yucatan. I haven't been to some other parts yet, but I can see myself in many. I love Mexico, and Mexican people so much. I have not even scratched the surface after driving 1,000 miles through the Yucatan, Chiapas, Campeche, Quintana Roo, and Tabasco.

We are both middle-aged educators who enjoy reading, we are a little introverted, we like nature, and we like very small things. I have never been to a country I did not like or feel some connection with. I am fascinated by culture in its tremendous variation. The world delights me.

America is currently in a state of profound political turmoil. It is unbearable for me to live here, not because of the demonstrations and protests, but because of the feeling of alienation and anger and also, fear, hatred, and disgust, that I have towards this country now. I know I must leave, and I plan to do so this summer.

However, I have a complicated, but absolutely treatable, neurological problem which is a movement disorder. It is easy to treat! It requires two daily medications though, and both of these are non-narcotic, non-opiate controlled substances that I have been on for about twenty years. One, I take at slightly high doses because of the length of time I have been on it, but I've never abused it or been in any trouble with the law. Both cause physical dependence, which is unpleasant, but without them, I look a bit like Stephen Hawking, so they are essential to my continued mobility.

One is a benzodiazepine, one is a z-drug for sleep. Again, both for the neurological movement disorder that has not been successfully treated by other medication despite a lot of efforts over the years. I also take other, non-controlled medications as well for other reasons. These are important too as one is essential to life (like diabetes medication, but not).

It has been very difficult to try to figure out how to expatriate when I cannot establish more than a 30 day supply of medication here in the US due to prescribing laws, so I would want to set something up, perhaps during a trip, with a doctor.

My plan is to continue to teach abroad. But I'm open to other jobs as well and have other skills. We have good savings and are unsure if we are moving "for a while" or permanently. But I feel ill at ease in America now and must leave by the summer. I am white, but I am (completely secular) Jewish, and the rising tide of anti-Semitism is causing me extreme anxiety, with threats of bombings and swastikas cropping up everywhere; I come from a Holocaust family on one side. Since we were going to expatriate anyways, I want to put my feelers out and think about countries or places that might be a good fit for us, particularly with my frustrating medical woes.

How do you establish medication continuance when you choose to move abroad, especially if you take anything that could be seen as potentially "sketchy" even if it's not?

Thank you for your guidance, and I am happy to find this forum.

We have VERY simple needs, by the way! Even though we own a nice house, we will just rent it or sell it, depending, and could get by with as little as a 1 BR apartment. We are not well-off, but we aren't hurting financially at all either. And it is possible I would move first and my husband might tie things up here and then move a few months later. I could probably live for about a year or more just off of my savings before securing a job.

Any advice you can offer is more than what I currently have. So thank you for taking my post seriously.

I know the OP posted this about 4 years ago, but there has been a recent post in this thread this year, and I think there's a point that no one covered in this thread that's worth mentioning.

Before I retired as a Registered Nurse I worked as a case manager and would sometimes encounter patients who had similar histories and concerns.

I learned to ask them one key question:

If your current prescribing physician were to die today, do you think you would have trouble getting your current prescriptions filled by a different doctor in your area?

Unfortunately, when people are on very large doses of narcotics, or at least larger amounts than are normally prescribed, the real fear is that they could not get another doctor to write those same prescriptions.

So anyone in a similar boat who's reading this thread with similar concerns about transferring narcotic prescriptions from your provider outside Mexico to your provider inside Mexico should realize that there is no guarantee that a new doctor is going to simply pick up where the other doctor left off and prescribe the same unusual amounts of narcotics.

In fact, it's my experience around the world that most doctors are very conservative with new patients.

At best you might be able to get a new doctor to start you on the same medications at a lower normal dose first.

So if your fear is that you are not going to get the same exact prescription that you got before, your fear may be well founded.

It would seem that the only alternative would be to start making short trips to Mexico to the area of preference, and attempt to make a contact with a reputable physician by scheduling an intake exam and interview (History & Physical).

Of course you would bring enough medication with you to last during your trip, and the price for the exam and interview in Mexico will probably come out of your own pocket, as there's probably no reason for your insurance to cover that in addition to what your physician back home is doing.

A big advantage of taking this admittedly difficult path is that you avoid that panic and discomfort that would ensue should your worst fears be realized and you cannot convince a Mexican physician to start you off at the same level of narcotics that you were on in your home country.

I hope this doesn't sound judgmental because I fully understand the fear of not being able to have continuity of care when relocating.

Just try to let go of the other problems that are not really related to your medication and focus on that one issue; finding a physician and establishing a relationship with them before making your move.

And just to clarify, although benzodiazepines are not narcotics, in healthcare when talking about addictive medications it's common shorthand to simply say narcotics.

It's definitely not technically correct but common word usage.

Most of your meds are widely available without a prescription at most pharmacies.  Some pharmacies have a doc available for free to give you a prescription.  That part is easy.

Well Ocean,

As a fellow retired medical professional with similar experiences. except possible experience with mental health patients and drug addicted patients.

That would not be my first thought. 20 years on the same drug with an ever increasing dosage is a drug ripe for a serious evaluation. More current views of treatment have resulted in dramatic changes in diet and lifestyle leading to potential resolution of some chronic conditions. Some of the doctors here would feel the same. They are very concerned about keeping their licenses. On the positive side a number of them have studied nutrition.

Also all drugs are not necessarily easily available in Mexico. I had a family member who died of cancer and getting his Mexican physicians prescribed pain meds was very time consuming.

travellight wrote:

Well Ocean,

As a fellow retired medical professional with similar experiences. except possible experience with mental health patients and drug addicted patients.

That would not be my first thought. 20 years on the same drug with an ever increasing dosage is a drug ripe for a serious evaluation. More current views of treatment have resulted in dramatic changes in diet and lifestyle leading to potential resolution of some chronic conditions. Some of the doctors here would feel the same. They are very concerned about keeping their licenses. On the positive side a number of them have studied nutrition.

Also all drugs are not necessarily easily available in Mexico. I had a family member who died of cancer and getting his Mexican physicians prescribed pain meds was very time consuming.

I believe you are absolutely and 100% correct.

I didn't feel that it was needful for me to tell the OP that they probably wouldn't get the answer they were seeking when they sought out a physician to support their needs in Mexico.

But I'd rather give them that advice than the advice some are giving that they can simply come down and go to some pharmacy somewhere and get the meds they want.

That would almost certainly get them involved with a black market of either counterfeit medications or real medications that were illegally obtained by the supplier.

It seems to me that would be a very efficient way to become involved with the infamous cartels.

Dear Professor X:

As a resident of Mexico of over 16 years, I can tell you that Mexico is also in a state of social & political turmoil.

In regards to your questions... You will find that most medications in Mexico are available without a prescription with the exception of narcotics and antibiotics. Some specialty drugs are unavailable at pharmacies, but can be special ordered. Well-connected local doctors often have access both to online pharmacies as well as drug importers.

There are no health system databases in Mexico. What this means is that there are no digital health records available and therefore, no cross referencing of medical information between the US and Mexico.

You would need to establish a relationship with a bilingual doctor specialist in your city to discuss your medication needs.

Hope this is helpful.

Melanie
Health insurance agent and advisor.

Dear Professor X:

As a resident of Mexico of over 16 years, I can tell you that Mexico is also in a state of social & political turmoil.

In regards to your questions... You will find that most medications in Mexico are available without a prescription with the exception of narcotics and antibiotics. Some specialty drugs are unavailable at pharmacies, but can be special ordered. Well-connected local doctors often have access both to online pharmacies as well as drug importers.

There are no health system databases in Mexico. What this means is that there are no digital health records available and therefore, no cross referencing of medical information between the US and Mexico.

You would need to establish a relationship with a bilingual doctor specialist in your city to discuss your medication needs.

Hope this is helpful.

Melanie
Health insurance agent and advisor.

- @Melanie_In_Mexico