Every single day in at a checkpoint in Yuma, Arizona, border agents are overwhelmed with a non-stop flow of 6,000 people streaming across the border.
The border crossers are seeking emergency and primary medical care as the flow between the border of the United States and Mexico.
But unlike the migrant caravans originating in South and Central America, many of these “daytime refugees” are well healed and driving new cars and have a pocket full of money.
The Yuma border crossers are Americans streaming into Los Algodones, Mexico seeking low cost, high quality dental care.
With the cost of routine dental procedures costing thousands of dollars and the limited coverage offered by most health insurance plans, Americans choose to cross into Mexico to save 60 to 80 percent of their dental costs.
Dental care prices in the United States have climbed to the point that 36% of Americans don’t visit a dentist each year out of concern for the cost.
This cost avoidance has driven prices even higher combined with the climb in education costs. The average graduating dentist enters his first job with $200,000 in student debt.
For complex procedures, some Americans find it significantly less expensive to plan a “medical vacation” to Thailand.
For those seeking a simple day trip, they can pay $5 to park at the border station in Yuma, Arizona, walk across the border into Los Algodones, and return home with a shiny new crown and thousands of dollars remaining in their bank accounts.
