I have read that in Mexico the Nursing home cost are about 1/3 of what they are here. It seem Guadaljara is the area that they talk about. I know someone at my church who visits a friend there every 6 months or so and she says it is very nice and well staffed. Has anyone on this site explored this?
A quote from a USA Today article on that very subject:
--------------------------- AJIJIC, Mexico — After Jean Douglas turned 70, she realized she couldn't take care of herself anymore. Her knees were giving out, and winters in Bandon, Ore., were getting harder to bear alone.
Douglas was shocked by the high cost and impersonal care at assisted-living facilities near her home. After searching the Internet for other options, she joined a small but steadily growing number of Americans who are moving across the border to nursing homes in Mexico, where the sun is bright and the living is cheap.
For $1,300 a month — a quarter of what an average nursing home costs in Oregon — Douglas gets a studio apartment, three meals a day, laundry and cleaning service, and 24-hour care from an attentive staff, many of whom speak English. She wakes up every morning next to a glimmering mountain lake, and the average annual high temperature is a toasty 79 degrees.
"It is paradise," says Douglas, 74. "If you need help living or coping, this is the place to be. I don't know that there is such a thing back (in the USA), and certainly not for this amount of money." ---------------------------
Interesting thought. I have heard of the trend for retirees to head south, for cheap cost-of-living and sunshine. Stands to reason that this would be the next logical thing.
I think I'll keep an eye on that option.....God knows I won't have the worry of anyone having to visit me. 'Cause no one WILL! *NOTE TO SELF...LEARN SPANISH
FYI: This area, Lake Chapala, Ajijic, (both just outside of Guadalajara) is simply beautiful. We used to vacation in Guadalajara six or seven times a year and had many friends there. Guadalajara is known as the "City of Eternal Springtime" due to the weather and the beautiful flowers tht bloom year around. Country clubs abound, many Americans live there, and there is a very well known Medical University there. Many American Med Students go there for their Internship and Residencies. Certainly worth looking at if you have an adventuresome spirit and enjoy a laid back lifestyle and don't require the latest in hi technology in your homes. The homes are lovely, but not on the scale of "lovely upscaled homes" in the USA. We used to tell U.S. visitors there "If you want everything to be on the scale of conveniences in the USA, "STAY IN THE USA". (Before we were married, my husband lived in Mexico for 12 years when he was an executive with DuPont,S.A. - Mexico".)