Hello Mexico and Adios Baby to You

An article in the Miami Herald reminded me of this Top 5 Country hit for Johnny Duncan in 1978. Andres Oppenheimer wrote, "How to Help U.S. Retirees -- And Mexico, Too" Oppenheimer's proposal would allow the United States to solve its immigration crisis, control sky-high healthcare costs and rebuild ties with Latin America in one stroke: Make it easier for millions of Americans to retire in style and pay lower medical bills south of the border.

The upcoming retirement of about 100 million U.S. baby boomers will result in increased demand and ever-growing prices of retirement housing, nursing and healthcare bills for millions of Americans. Many of them are already seeking retirement alternatives overseas.

As Walter Russell Mead suggests in his recent book, Power, Terror, Peace & War, the United States should negotiate agreements with willing partners in the region to provide favorable deals to U.S. citizens willing to retire south of the border.

It could, among other things, offer reimbursement under Medicare for Americans seeking medical care in qualified and licensed healthcare facilities in Latin America, he writes.

Since these reimbursements would be much lower than those Americans would get in the United States, the U.S. government would save billions of dollars, which it could use to replenish Social Security coffers.

By creating hundreds of thousands of jobs for doctors, nurses, hospital technicians, restaurateurs and construction workers, Latin American economies would get a big boost. Florida, Arizona and Spain were sleepy economies before millions of retirees arrived and turned them into prosperous states or nations.

Some of this is already happening. More than one million Americans are already living in Mexico, many of them retirees seeking warm weather, lower property taxes and more affordable healthcare, The Dallas Morning News reported recently.

I know my friends Cal & Lucy would be there in a heartbeat, they vacation there yearly. I know as I approach my fifth decade on the planet the last thing I look forward to is an Iowa winter. It would be cheaper than my annual Maui pilgrimage and the humpback whales like it too! If only I hadn't burned myself out on Tequila Sheila (Bobby Bare/1980)!