Boomers Head to Mexico For Sun, Sand and Surgery

The author: Ilene Little
 

According to a Feb 2 post on Breaking Travel News, Mexico is gearing up for a boom in medical tourism as the ageing U.S. population heads south not just for sun and sand but also "treatments and surgeries".

"A million baby boomers, as they are called in the US, could come to live in Mexico in the coming years," said Mexican Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova Villalobos.

In coordination with other federal agencies, the Health Ministry plans to build up the country's medical tourism infrastructure during the next two years.

The initiative includes training a corps of bilingual Spanish-English nurses, and a push to increase the number of private Mexican hospitals accredited by a joint US-Mexico commission. Cordova told Mexidata.info that eight such private institutions have been certified under the commission's standards.

Regional initiatives to promote medical tourism are underway in the northern border states of Chihuahua, Baja California and Nuevo Leon, Cordova said greater coordination at the federal level is needed to tap a global market enjoyed by nations including Thailand, India, Costa Rica and Brazil, which are targeting the growth in medical tourism.

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