Medicare proposed for retirees in Mexico Health care providers, policymakers, and scholars from the United States and Mexico looked at ways to shape the future of Medicare at a conference held in February at the LBJ School. Called "Getting What You Paid For: Medicare Benefits for Recipients Living in Mexico," the conference grew out of a policy research project that is studying ways to enable retired Americans living in Mexico to access their Medicare benefits (see project Web site). Since Medicare currently pays for few services received outside the United States, the conference focused on ways to define and promote new policies that would allow retirees--in this case, those in Mexico--to be reimbursed for some services. One of the options discussed by the participants was a research and demonstration waiver under Medicare that would permit researchers to conduct an experiment involving retirees living in Mexico. The experiment would measure the impact Medicare coverage would have on health costs incurred by this group as well as the quality of health care they receive. According to LBJ School Professor David Warner, who organized the event with the help of nine students, it is hard to interest individual members of the U.S. Congress in the issue despite its importance because retirees come from all over the country. "But since there are over a million voters who live abroad, a presidential election year might be the time to advocate such an initiative," he said. The findings of the conference and of Warner's policy research project will be presented at the annual meeting of the United States Mexico Chamber of Commerce, which will take place in Washington in May. The information will also be shared with high-level U.S. and Mexican policymakers at a conference in Cuernavaca in June. Some of the featured speakers at the Austin conference included Larry Meagher, president of the Dallas-based International Hospital Corporation; Dr. Andrew Nichols, a member of the Arizona Legislature and the U.S. Mexico Border Health Association; and Enrique Ruelas, president of Qualimed, a company that certifies hospitals in Latin America. The conference was funded primarily through a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

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