Word: mexicanization
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...rapid growth of legitimate Mexican health services has helped change the image of many border towns once better known for services of a seedier sort. Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez, for example, came of age serving liquor to thirsty gringos during Prohibition. More recently, they have catered to amorous misadventures of Americans, offering prostitution, easy abortions and quick divorces. "Standards are a lot higher than they were ten years ago," says Ana Maria Ley Estrella, president of the Tijuana Dental Association...
...some questionable practices linger, thanks to the comparative laxity of Mexican drug-regulatory laws and the predatory ways of get-rich-quick doctors. Until recently, thousands of Americans crossed the border for the sole purpose of buying Redotex, a potent Mexican-made diet prescription not licensed for sale in the U.S.; some pill-dispensing physicians became millionaires almost overnight. "They would send young boys out to tout for patients," recalls a Mexican physician in Nuevo Laredo. "Some doctors would see as many as 100 patients on a weekend. They would call them in five at a time and sometimes dispense...
...concerned about the growing popularity of self-medication with drugs purchased south of the border. "Anyone who buys drugs without a prescription is taking a terrific risk," says Dr. Laurance Nickey, director of the El Paso City County Health District. Thousands of American cancer patients still flock to Mexican clinics each year for treatment with Laetrile, whose alleged curative powers have been discredited by U.S. health authorities...
...number of middle-income Americans looking southward for doctoring grows, so does the demand for sophisticated services. Mexican plastic surgeons are now in big demand. Reason: a face-lift or tummy tuck south of the Rio Grande costs about 40% of what it does in the U.S. "An operation that typically costs $5,000 in the U.S. can be had for about $2,000 here," says Dr. Jorge Lopez y Garcia, a plastic surgeon from Mexico City. Lopez, a graduate of the Institute of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery at New York University Medical Center, flies to Nuevo Laredo twice a month...
Many Americans are surprised by the range and quality of Mexican health care. "I was very dubious at first about coming here for dental work," recalls Mark Hamilton, a San Diego telecommunications consultant who came to Goldstein in Tijuana in 1983 for root-canal treatment. "But now I am convinced that not only is it cheaper, but also I am getting superior dentistry. They care more down here." He recalls once Goldstein even picked him up at the San Ysidro border crossing in her own car and dropped him off again after the appointment. Says...