Cheating to Live
Americans flock to Mexico for health care they are unable to get at home.
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Lack of universal health care in the US has left an estimated 47 million Americans with little or no access to medical and dental care, or affordable access to prescription drugs. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Americans seek cheaper and more readily available health care outside the US.
More than 250,000 Americans cross their country’s southern borders to Mexico ever year in search of everything from prescription drugs to alternative cancer treatments – many of which are illegal in the US.
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| Around 200,00 American medical tourists go to Mexico every year |
In the upcoming US presidential elections, the annual $2 trillion health care system is taken to task for leaving out the country’s most vulnerable groups.
In the on-going primaries, health care, along with the state of the economy and the war in Iraq are among the most important issues for American voters.
Film-makers Mariam Shahin and George Azar take a look at how the US health system has failed so many and the ingenious ways Americans are finding to keep themselves healthy and alive.
They speak to uninsured blue collar workers who cross the borders to literally, stay alive and follow other more middle class Americans to Mexico in search of treatments which are banned in their own country.
Cheating to Live looks at the determination of average Americans who need medical care to continue their lives, who are willing to cross borders and sometimes act in defiance of their US-based doctors just to stay alive.
Watch part one of Cheating to Live on YouTube
Watch part two of Cheating to Live on YouTube
Cheating to Live aired from Saturday, February 2, 2008 at the following times GMT:
Saturday, February 02: 14:30, 22:30
Sunday, February 03: 02:30, 12:30
Monday, February 04: 00:30, 07:30
Tuesday, February 05: 13:30
Wednesday, February 06: 19:30
Thursday, February 07: 05:30
Friday, February 08: 03:00, 10:30
Saturday, February 09: 06:30
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