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What type of health care does Mexico have? Is it a socialized medicine program like Canada?
Good English, less than 10%. Probably somewhere in the 5% range. Functional enough to say serve you at their establishment maybe 20%. If you go to a resort town the percentage of those with functional ability goes way up since that is the majority of their customers. But don't mistaken it for good English, a resourceful person who wants to get paid will figure out a way to speak what is needed to do business.
Health care system is not like Canada. There is a safety net type program IMSS for those at the bottom essentially. People with decent jobs or money opt for something better, but still pay less than you would in the US for nice hotels and good service with well trained doctors. If you are not Mexican its a hassle to get into IMSS and frankly I don't think too many foreigners would want to be part of it.
If you are a salaried employee and pay taxes are entitled to Social Security (IMSS), a housing credit (Infonavit) and a system for retirement (Afore). All is paid with your taxes and employer and government contributions.
If you're a informal worker (don't pay taxes) or have a high level of poverty, then there is Seguro Popular, is free if you are very poor or very cheap if you can pay.
People who have a sizable income prefer to hire a Major Medical Insurance that gives you access to private hospitals, the more you pay, the better the hospital.
Medical care for minor illnesses in Mexico is very economical, for example: for a flu & throat infection a consultation and medicines in farmacias similares does not exceed $ 200MXP ($ 15USD).
A dental surgery to repair a cavity with resin cost me a few weeks ($ 17USD) and the attention is generally good.
The percentage of Mexicans (outside the tourism industry) that I met who can speak English fluently (or semi-fluently) is very low. This extends to youth as well. Despite plenty of Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, and sometimes years of public school English classes, they can do no more than string a few words together. They learn or retain almost no English grammar. According to the father of a girl I met there, English instruction in the schools is focused on rote memorization. A lot of students there (as everywhere I presume) pay more knowledgeable students to do their homework, so I bet that has an effect as well.
Those who have traveled to the U.S. for long periods of time or who attended extracurricular English classes (at one of the many "language institutes") are exceptions.
Very few Mexicans can speak English well enough to have a useful conversation. Of course, every body knows a few words of English, but to ask simple directions or get basic travel information, probably no more then 5%. In larger cities, maybe 10%.
Quite a few, maybe most Mexicans who know some English are people who went to the US illegally, learned some English, and were deported back to Mexico. Or who went to the USA legally and then chose for reasons of their own to return to Mexico., which is a surprisingly large number of people.
What type of health care does Mexico have? Is it a socialized medicine program like Canada?
1.- No idea honestly. But trust me, in one way or another, you'd get to communicate with people. Even if using only some sort of archaic sign language.
Very few Mexicans can speak English well enough to have a useful conversation. Of course, every body knows a few words of English, but to ask simple directions or get basic travel information, probably no more then 5%. In larger cities, maybe 10%.
A more sophisticated study that grades statistical samples of people on the quality of their English (without assigning simple percentages) rates the following 54 non-English speaking countries by proficiency in English. The ranking of the Latin American countries is different than above.
1 Sweden
2 Denmark
3 Netherlands
4 Finland
5 Norway
6 Belgium
7 Austria
8 Hungary
9 Germany
10 Poland
11 Czech Republic
12 Singapore
13 Malaysia
14 India
15 Switzerland
16 Slovakia
17 Pakistan
18 Spain
19 Portugal
20 Argentina
21 South Korea
22 Japan
23 France
24 Italy
25 Hong Kong
26 Uruguay
27 Indonesia
28 Iran
29 Russia
30 Taiwan
31 Kazakhstan
32 Turkey
33 Peru
34 Costa Rica
35 Morocco
36 China
37 Qatar
38 Mexico
39 Chile
40 Venezuela
41 El Salvador
42 Syria
43 Ecuador
44 Algeria
45 Kuwait
46 Brazil
47 Guatemala
49 U.A.E.
50 Colombia
51 Panama
52 Saudi Arabia
53 Thailand
54 Libya
Health care system is not like Canada. There is a safety net type program IMSS for those at the bottom essentially. People with decent jobs or money opt for something better, but still pay less than you would in the US for nice hotels and good service with well trained doctors. If you are not Mexican its a hassle to get into IMSS and frankly I don't think too many foreigners would want to be part of it.
Many foreigners in Mexico sign up for IMSS and love it. For those who have preexisting conditions and cannot get IMSS, Seguro Popular provides healthcare.
IMSS costs a volunteer member like a foreigner about $300 a year for someone aged 65. That covers all medical, hospital, everything is paid 100% including medicine.
SP is free to retired people and those who fall below a certain income. It also covers 100% but does not have the extensive medicine and certain treatments like IMSS.
All employers are required to provide IMSS for employees and it covers the employee's family as well.
Medical care in Mexico is inexpensive compared to the U.S. and many people pay out of pocket.
There are private insurance plans also that cover more than private U.S. medical insurance policies.
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