Mar. 16–NUEVO PROGRESO, Mexico — People afflicted with arthritis, rheumatism, high cholesterol, heartburn, heart complications, allergies or infections know they can always head for the border to buy medications.
For many of them, it’s part of the daily routine in this Mexican border town across from Progreso, Texas.
Winter Texans from the Midwestern states or residents of the Rio Grande Valley, can be seen on any day at any of the dozen drugstores in the four square-blocks of Nuevo Progreso’s business district.
Scores of medications, such as those used to lower cholesterol, to treat arthritis and rheumatism and penicillin, are sold here over th counter, just like buying aspirin and Tylenol at a U.S. pharmacy.
In the United States, however, cholesterol reducers like Lipitor and Crestor, can only be purchased with a doctor’s prescription.
For the most part, medicine manufactured in Mexico by the same companies that make them in the United States costs about 30 percent less in Mexico.
Some drugstore clerks either don’t care or won’t discuss that some U.S.-made medicines cost about the same or are sometimes cheaper if bought at a U.S. pharmacy with a good health insurance plan.
“That may be true,” said Emigdio Garcia, owner of Garcia’s of Matamoros, “but what about people who have no insurance?”
For the uninsured, there are few alternatives but to walk or drive into a Mexican town and buy the type of medicine they need.
But even those covered by a U.S. health plan come here to buy medicines.
On a recent trip to this border town, many American shoppers said they have insurance, but declined to give their names. Some Valley residents said they buy medicine on the Mexican side of the border because their parents and grandparents did so for as long as they can remember.
Others said they would rather buy medicine here than going to a U.S. doctor where they have to wait sometimes for hours to see a physician, pay $10 to $20 or more depending on a co-payments and pay twice or three times as much for some medications.
However, medicine such as Lipitor and Crestor, both of which are prescribed by U.S. doctors to lower cholesterol, are more expensive here than in the United States if bought through a U.S. health insurance plan.
A Viagra pill, for instance, costs here from $13 to $15, compared to $10 if bought at an U.S. pharmacy with an insurance card. Miguel Gonzalez, a Corpus Christi resident, said he comes here to see a doctor and to buy medicine whenever he gets the chance.
“I have health insurance with the U.S. government,” he said, “but I only use it if something major happens to me.”
Teresa Sanchez, a McAllen resident, said she buys medicine to treat her arthritis.
“My insurance company would not pay for the prescription,” she said. “But I can buy it here for about half the price of what it would have cost me across.” But not all medications cost the same. Medication prices differ from drugstore to drugstore. In some cases, the price can vary by $2 at a pharmacy only two doors away from another. Store employees said they offer their own discounts in an effort to make a sale.
But whenever a businessperson owns a chain of several stores, like in the case of Azteca or Garcia’s, the discounts are bigger than those offered by someone who owns a single store. Garcia’s, a Matamoros-based business, has two drug stores here and two others in Matamoros.
“We buy large amounts of medications,” Garcia, the family patriarch, said in a recent interview. “That enables us to offer better discounts than what other pharmacies do.”
Winter Texans are among the biggest seasonal customers of the dozen drugstores found here. Unlike some Valley residents, these visitors are not shy to comment on buying medicine here.
“We wouldn’t be here if the drugmakers weren’t so greedy,” Phyllis Baxter, a visitor from Arkansas, said.
“They don’t even have generic drugs for some medications.”
Here, a generic version of Lipitor is widely offered at most drugstores. Baxter said she doesn’t buy a lot of medications, but buys a few whenever she is here.
In one instance, she said she buys a month’s supply of Lansoprazol at $20.
“It costs $90 in the United States,” Baxter, who is covered by a U.S. insurance plan, said. “That is a big difference.”
Lanzoprasol is the generic for Prevacid, she said, adding she wouldn’t be able to buy it back home because it is not available in the market.
“I am a nurse,” Baxter said, “and I know something about medications.”
Don and Martha Vaughn said they buy medicine here for the same reason.
Even with the new discount card offered by the government, Vaughn said he still saves a few dollars buying medicine here rather than in the United States.
Lorenzo Pelly, an internal medicine doctor in Brownsville, described the medicine shopping frenzy across the border as chaos.
“A lot of people go to buy medicine across the border when there are some medications that are cheaper on this side of the border,” he said.
“I know of people who have gone across to buy the wrong type of medications. Instead of getting better, some of them have ended up getting worse,” Pelly said. “It’s a chaos.”
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