March 10, 2008
Plans
for Healthcare Services in Mexico for U.S. Citizens
Frontera
NorteSur
Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim
is moving ahead with his plans to open hospitals in Mexico that cater to US baby boomers. Slim's business concept might
be compared to a maquiladora export factory. A raw product, in this case an ailing US citizen, is imported into Mexico, "put
together" and then re-exported back to the home country. Ironically, Slim’s fortune, now estimated to be larger
than that of Bill Gates, derives in part from the tycoon's Marlboro cigarette business in Mexico.
In partnership with
Grupo Star Medica, Slim's Ideal company intends to open new medical centers in Puerto Peņasco, Sonora, and in Los Cabos on
the Baja California peninsula. A national hospital chain, Grupo Star Medica is a fast-growing business with expansion
plans in Ciudad Juarez and additional Mexican cities. In 2007, Ideal purchased 49 percent of Grupo Star Medica's stock. Specializing
in construction and development, Ideal has agreed to help Grupo Star Medica with infrastructure, acquisition and financing.
With
its planned medical centers in Puerto Peņasco and Los Cabos, Grupo Star Medica plans to tap into a new market segment of US
baby boomers who are buying second homes in Mexico. Reportedly, sales of vacation homes in Los Cabos and Puerto Peņasco increased
30 percent and 45 percent, respectively, during the last three years.
Claudia Velazquez, an analyst for the Softec
real estate market analysis firm, said the relative lack of medical services in beach resorts attractive to US vacationers
and expatriates is opening up business opportunities for companies like Grupo Star Medica.
"(Baby boomers) are also
choosing Mexico because its health system is much cheaper than in the United States," Velazquez said.
Besides Slim,
other Mexico-based entrepreneurs are seriously looking at the growing population of US baby boomers who need healthcare services.
Their plan is to get US private insurance companies to pay for medical treatment in Mexico.
"For a US insurance policy
to pay for medical treatment, the treatment has to comply with certain quality control standards, and we are going to participate
with products to serve this niche," said Jaime Jimenez, general director for Mexico Trane, another company on the same path
as Slim. Of course, it remains to be seen if the expansion of medical services in Mexico to US residents will help lower
private insurance premiums in this country.
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Sources: Tribuna de la
Bahia/Agencia Reforma, February 26, 2008. Article by Karla Ramirez. Biznews.com.mx, July
9, 2007. Ideal.com.mx.
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Frontera
NorteSur (FNS)
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico
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(Reprinted with authorization from
Frontera NorteSur, a free, on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news source. FNS can be found at http://frontera.nmsu.edu/)
Translation FNS
