Access to Health Care for Migrants Returning to Mexico

Continued migration from Mexico over the past several decades has created a large population of elderly Mexicans in the U.S. There is no system in Mexico for those Mexicans who would like to retire there to obtain health insurance during their retirement years. Using a nationally representative dataset of Mexican elders, we explore the current state of health insurance status for Mexican elders with a history of migration to the U.S. We find a robust negative association between years spent in the U.S. and the probability of being insured. Coordination between the U.S. and Mexico on policy options to insure Mexicans migrants may prove beneficial to the social security systems in both countries as well as to migrants themselves.