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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: August 15th, 2023

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  • As somebody who goes to Juarez several times per week and has also traveled extensively throughout Mexico, cartel violence typically does not reach the average tourist, just like how people who go to New York are unlikely to actually see the mob. I have experienced more hassle from police than gangs, and even that is usually a cursory questioning and pocket check for drugs.

    15 years ago, there were some cities that were in the middle of organized crime wars, and sometimes things spilled over into public where civilians could get hurt. This created a lot of heat for the cartels, and more recently they have mostly been operating under the radar or in remote neighborhoods again.

    The bigger risk than violence is kidnapping, but even that doesn’t tend to get aimed at the tourist population due to the international backlash it would cause.

    If you keep your wits about you, travel in Ubers that you order rather than unmarked cabs, and don’t accept drinks from strangers, then Mexico can be a wonderful adventure. The Mexican people have been mostly extremely good to me, and I refuse to cut them off as dangerous just because the news tries to tell me so.











  • I work in American healthcare. Your doctor is actually one of the worst people to ask about coverage.

    Unfortunately, the only solid way to be 100% sure of coverage is to call your insurance company and make them guarantee your planned procedures in writing. Every doctors office has a department to deal with insurance—after you talk to the insurance company you will want to talk to the insurance department at the doctors office and give them the written statement from the insurance company.

    After your procedures, your bill will be processed by a medical coder at the doctors office, and a clearing house coder who gets things ready for your insurance company, before it potentially gets double checked again by coders who actually work for the insurance company. Those people will not have any clue about the arrangement made prior to your procedure, and this is the series of steps where something might happen that would cause your insurance company to not pay.

    If you did your due diligence and got everything in writing beforehand, then the insurance company will kick the bill back to the doctor, at which point it will be reviewed by a payment specialist who will be able to see and use the written commitment to force the insurance company to process the bill.

    This whole process takes anywhere from weeks to months, so you may not know there is a problem until a while after your appointment.

    Welcome to American healthcare. Good luck getting whatever you can.