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[ LOS ANGELES ](https://www.citywatchla.com/los-angeles)
# The Other Mexican Migration
August 08 2019
Written by Jim Hightower.
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**PERSPECTIVE**--You probably haven’t heard about it, but there’s another mass migration coming across the U.S.-Mexico border.
However, these aren’t Central American families fleeing horrific conditions back home — only to be separated, incarcerated, traumatized, and demonized by Trump for seeking humanitarian asylum in our country.
Rather, these migrants are going the other way — *from* the United States into Mexican border towns, where they’re welcomed with open arms instead of armed guards.
They’re mostly working-class people seeking relief from our nation’s unaffordable, no-care health care system. [As many as 6,000 a day](https://truthout.org/articles/millions-of-americans-flood-into-mexico-for-health-care) travel to towns like Los Algodones, across from Yuma, Arizona, to get medical services and prescription drugs that are priced out of their reach here in the United States.
Nicknamed “[Molar City](https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2014/06/09/318212444/a-reason-to-smile-mexican-town-is-a-destination-for-dental-tourism),” Los Algodones has more dentists per capita than anywhere else in the world. Quality dental work in Mexico averages [*two-thirds less than it costs here*](https://sanidentalgroup.com/blog/mexico-dentist-prices).
This is because the health system there prioritizes care over profits.
Start with professional education, which is tuition-free in Mexico, meaning dentists and other health care providers don’t have to jack up prices to cover a crushing load of student debt. Also, Mexico’s universal, tax-paid health care system doesn’t saddle patients with exorbitantly expensive insurance bureaucracies.
It’s a system that’s open, affordable, and accessible to all — the opposite of ours, which is why hordes of U.S. working-class people go south to find care. As a [Truthout.org article](https://truthout.org/articles/millions-of-americans-flood-into-mexico-for-health-care) reports, “U.S. citizens seeking healthcare can park in Yuma for $5, walk across the border, get the help they need, and come back for dinner.”
Instead of building a senseless border wall to keep people out of the U.S., our leaders ought to be looking across the border for ideas on how to build a better health care system.
*(OtherWords columnist and CityWatch contributor Jim Hightower is a radio commentator, writer, and public speaker. Distributed by OtherWords.org.)*
*-cw*
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