Black market for health services in U.S.-Mexico border region

The exchange of medical services between Arizona and Mexico is an issue that authorities in both countries have treated bilaterally, but despite the agreements and protocols, there remains a need for services and medicines at low cost that have created a black market for medical services.

The differences between the health systems of neighboring countries question the ability of politicians to design a mechanism for satisfying health care providers and consumers in both countries.

However, it is well known that patients have been crossing the border for the specific purpose of obtaining health care for many years.

The socioeconomic disparity in border communities for decades has meant that there is a culture of "pirate" or unregulated clinics offered on both sides of the border services.

On the Mexican side abound all pharmacies and private health facilities where U.S. residents go for the low cost of these services.

Meanwhile, thousands of people have been without health insurance or are unable to cross the border to receive medical care at a reasonable cost, so they turn to medical specialists assumptions and crossing the border to offer their services illegal in the United States.

This situation has generated a black market for health services that operates indiscriminately in cities near the border between the two countries.