Mexico Offers Care for Elders
Some would-be expats find it difficult to leave the U.S. or Canada because of aging parents who may need their care or who already do. Also, some retirees are hesitant about moving to another country because they’re concerned about what may happen if they themselves become disabled.
Now, though, moving to Mexico is increasingly an affordable option for those seeking special care for their parents or for themselves. As baby boomers reach retirement age, assisted living facilities and nursing homes are springing up in or near the most popular expat havens such as Baja California, Lake Chapalla/Ajijic and San Miguel de Allende.
At the same time, the news about U.S. nursing homes is anything but good. Increasingly, these facilities are owned by large private equity firms like the Carlyle Group and Warburg Pincus. As The New York Times pointed out in a recent article, the labyrinthine structure of ownership makes it next to impossible for regulators to identify which company is responsible when abuses occur. This also serves to protect owners from lawsuits. More details are provided in the article “More Profit and Less Nursing at Many Nursing Homes.”
Retirement homes, assisted living facilities and nursing homes are different designations in the U.S. although they are sometimes combined in one facility. In looking at facilities in Mexico and elsewhere, it’s especially important to find out what services are provided. It also makes sense to ask other expats about what they know of a given facility.
A retirement village might be appropriate for healthy individuals who want to live adjacent to other seniors in individual cottages or apartments. Assisted living means just that, some assistance with daily tasks. Some or all meals would be provided, though residents have their own apartment with their own possessions around them. Nursing homes provide or are supposed to provide additional care and supervision for persons who need considerable help.
Unfortunately, a lot of reporting blurs the differences between these different facilities. In the U.S., Medicare pays for a limited length of stay in a nursing facility after an individual is discharged from a hospital, but offers no help with assisted living facilities, which can cost several thousand dollars a month. Out-of-pocket costs for nursing care, once Medicare stops paying, are even more.
At Casa de Ancianos in Lake Chapala, Mexico, retirees live in individual cottages, receive three meals a day and have, if needed, 24-hour nursing care all for just $550 a month, a fraction of costs for a similar facility in the U.S. Lake Chapala is adjacent to Ajijic and a half hour from Guadalajara. Casa de Ancianos uses revenues from U.S. residents to subsidize the cost of 20 Mexican residences. Ajijic has the facilities, El Paraiso and Casa Nostra.
In Ensenada in Baja California near the U.S. border, there is Residencia Lourdes, where the cost is about $1200 per month, compared to $4000 a month in California. Also in Baja, the Tijuana Economic Development Council is seeking funding from Mexican government to build more retirement homes for independent living and assisted living.