Many U.S. citizens choosing Mexico for affordable health care again

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A few months before Nadiezdha Dominguez was diagnosed with esophagitis, a medical condition that causes irritation or inflammation of the esophagus, she experienced first hand the stark difference in emergency room care provided in El Paso as opposed to Ciudad Juarez. She concluded that the treatment she received in a Ciudad Juarez emergency room in August was “worlds of difference” better than her experience at an El Paso medical facility in March. The 20-year-old UTEP student who lives with her mother in an area between Fabens and Clint is still paying the $1,350 bill for the hospital services and the doctor’s consultation she received at the El Paso hospital. Although she was diagnosed correctly, she could not afford to pay for her follow-up treatment in El Paso because she is uninsured and prefers to pay the “individual mandate penalty” rather than sign up for health insurance under the U.S. government’s Affordable Care Act. Instead, she crossed the Santa Fe (Paso del Norte) bridge with her mother five months ago and visited a Juarez hospital to get treated.

El enredo de Obamacare en Texas me está ahogando y sigo sin seguro médico

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EL PASO — Tras la extensión de días para inscribirse a el famoso Obamacare, aún sigo en busca de una buen seguro médico que pueda cubrirme.En mi búsqueda de algo “bueno, bonito y barato” he tenido varias dificultades. Soy una estudiante de tiempo completo, con un trabajo de medio tiempo, una que otra deuda, con algo de apoyo económico de parte de mis padres pero tratando de convertirme en una persona económicamente independiente. Lo cual significa que necesito algún seguro médico que me pueda cubrir lo “básico”. El comienzo de mi búsqueda para la perfecta cobertura para mis necesidades médicas me ha causado muchos dolores de cabeza. Todo comenzó cuando fui a un foro estudiantil que se llevó a cabo en la universidad donde estudio.

President Obama arrives at Fort Bliss. (Raymundo Aguirre/Borderzine.com)

Hispanic leaders, experts weigh in on ‘Obamacare’

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By Elizabeth de Armas & Luis Carlos López

Now that the Supreme Court has validated President Obama’s hallmark Affordable Care Act, the states must grapple with interpreting and implementing its 2,801 pages. As the cliché goes, the devil is in the detail. When the verdict was announced June 28, many Hispanic experts and organizational leaders hailed its passage as a victory. A follow-up survey by Hispanic Link News Service has found others are raising strong objections about some of its substantive provisions. Senior research analyst for the health policy project at the National Council of La Raza, Kara Ryan, called it a “major breakthrough.”

Some six million Latinos would gain a pathway to coverage should the law be fully implemented in 2014, she asserted saying that this would translate to the highest single gain by any ethnic group.

Health care reform is here to stay and it will boost U.S. economic prosperity

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EL PASO – The Republican cries for repeal of Obamacare that followed the affirmation by the Supreme Court of the law’s constitutionality reminded me of my days as a young journalist at The Miami Herald in 1977 when U.S. Representative Claude Pepper (D., Florida) then chairman of the House Committee on Aging, spoke of nothing else but defending Social Security and Medicare. Pepper, then 76 and known as “Mr. Social Security,” seemed unimaginably ancient to me and the thought of defending a law that had gone into effect in 1935, 42 years earlier, seemed to be the ridiculous ravings of a nearly senile old man. Since then I have come to understand why the old congressman kept on fighting. The Republicans never gave up. Remember when President George W. Bush stumped to privatize Social Security after his win in 2004?