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Tijuana Council Offers Border Crossing Coupons to Medical Tourists

By Amy Isackson / Border Reporter,  KPBS Public Broadcasting
Published December 20, 2007 at 11:25 AM PST
This story was published more than 16 years ago.

People who get medical treatment in Tijuana can now cross the border back to San Diego more quickly through a new lane for medical tourists. KPBS reporter Amy Isackson has the story.

Tijuana Council Offers Border Crossing Coupons to Medical Tourists

People who get medical treatment in Tijuana can now cross the border back to San Diego more quickly through a new lane for medical tourists. KPBS reporter Amy Isackson has the story.

Doctors and medical clinics in Tijuana can pay the city's Economic Development Council $2 for special border crossing coupons for their patients.

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The coupon allows patients who've driven to Tijuana to cut into the border line about three quarters of the way through.

Flavio Olivieri is on the board of Tijuana's Economic Development Council. He says the border wait should be 20 minutes maximum.

Olivieri : We are working towards improving border crossings in as many fronts as we can. And medical tourism is very important to the economy of Tijuana. So we see this as a way of fostering more growth in this area.

Olivieri says Tijuana's medical and pharmacy industry provides about $3.5 billion in revenue for Tijuana.

U.S. authorities are not involved in the new lane because the entrance is in Tijuana.

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Amy Isackson, KPBS News.

Amy Isackson
Amy Isackson was the border reporter at KPBS from 2004 to 2011. She covered breaking news and feature stories on California-Mexico border issues and immigration, for local and national broadcast. Amy got her start in public radio by pitching a series of stories about rural New Zealand - horse dentistry and sheep sheering - to Radio New Zealand's "Country Life" program. She then worked with Peabody Award-winning radio producers Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson, to help create the Sonic Memorial, a series of stories on the World Trade Center before, during and after 9/11. Amy's work has been recognized with awards from the Associated Press Television-Radio Association of California and Nevada, the California Chicano News Media Association, and the San Diego Press Club. She won the Sol Price Prize for Responsible Journalism in 2009 from the Society of Professional Journalists for her story about high school students smuggling people and drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border. Prior to venturing into the wonderful world of public radio, Amy worked for Yahoo! Inc. for nearly five years as an editorial surfer, associate producer and broadcast communications manager. She majored in Latin American History at Williams College. She grew up in San Diego and made frequent trips south of the border.
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