Toward better access to health insurance coverage for U.S. retirees in Mexico

Many retirees from the United States of America have limited health insurance coverage while living in Mexico. Medicare and Medicaid benefits are not portable to other countries and Medigap (private insurance that supplements Medicare) is very limited. This causes economic and medical hardships and serves as a barrier to retirement to Mexico. Increasing numbers of U.S. retirees will be interested in moving to Mexico in the future because of the climate, the culture, and the lower cost of living. The numbers are increasing as a result of several factors such as aging "baby boomers" and the rapidly growing Mexican-origin population in the U.S.A. who are citizens or permanent residents but would like to return to their communities of origin after working in the U.S.A. There are several policy initiatives that could provide opportunities for improving health insurance coverage for these retirees that could be cost-effective.     

Baseline management practices at providers in better jobs better care

High turnover and difficult recruitment of direct care workers are challenges for long-term care providers. This study reports the extent and variation of the use of management practices for direct care workers and their supervisors across four long-term care settings in the Better Jobs Better Care demonstration. Overall, there is limited use of direct care worker training, career advancement opportunities, and mentoring programs. Participation in care planning, communication about tasks, and direct care worker supervisor training and development practices vary significantly across long-term care settings. The paucity of training, career advancement opportunities, and mentoring programs suggests that government policies may be needed to encourage their use.     

Intensification of measles vaccination coverage

Better coverage of susceptibles with measles vaccine has clear demonstratable impact on disease incidence. Education and strong motivation of implementors and community at large and improvement in other managerial and administrative support actions for the programme are considered essential to boost up measles immunisation coverage. It is therefore, expected that with well planned and sustained implementation of country wide campaign of measles immunisation, the disease can be brought under control. This needs strong will, determination and urgency for well planned and sustained actions if we have to achieve desired goal--"IMMUNISATION FOR ALL BY 1990". The efforts required for achieving the targets are discussed in this paper.