- Slug: BC-CNS-Health Care-Los Algodones,320
- With: BC-CNS-Health Care-Mexico
EDITOR’S NOTE: This visit occurred in April 2010. Arizona State University, which operates Cronkite News Service, currently doesn’t allow student travel across the border.
By TESSA MUGGERIDGE
Cronkite News Service
LOS ALGODONES, Mexico – About 10 minutes outside of Yuma, this community is a tiny, densely packed medical destination where Americans flood across the border on weekdays and weekends to buy heavily discounted prescription drugs and to get cheap dental work, from standard teeth cleanings to braces for their teenagers.
It’s nicknamed the “Dentistry Capital of the World” because more than 300 dentists are packed into a few square blocks, nearly five times the number in all of Yuma County, according to an Arizona State Board of Dental Examiners database.
The city looks like a rundown Las Vegas; “callers” line the streets pushing “Sarah Palin” glasses and low-cost crowns and root canals instead of casinos and shows. Flashy signs and peeling billboards boast low prices on fillings and teeth whitening in both English and Spanish.
The pharmacies are steps from the border crossing, visible from the U.S. side. Most days the scene is the same: Hordes of Americans pay $5 to park in a lot and walk across the border. Many of them are older than 60, some bound to wheelchairs, walkers and canes.
When they return to their cars, many have months worth of prescription medication that costs a faction of what they pay in the U.S.
Yuma resident Leighanne Ridge, 58, a retired mail carrier, said she began crossing to Algodones to buy her cholesterol medication.
“I have good insurance but it only covers half of my premium and I just can’t afford that,” she said.
In Mexico, Lipitor costs about 30 percent of what it does in the U.S.
“Mexico is the answer for a lot of retired people who can’t afford pharmaceuticals any other way,” she said, adding that many of her friends and snowbirds in Arizona during the winter also cross.