Recently I saw a rerun of the TV series "Boston Legal" (it is humorous!) which one of the fictional cases involved an HMO which would only pay for a specific procedure if the patient flew to India for it (Cost was 1/5th the US cost). Well, the patient went there and died on the table. That led to all sorts of other problems for the surviving family who could not afford to be in India with the patient at the time of treatment.

Since we could never get the industrial NAFTA to work as proposed, a medical NAFTA is as rough. As with the fictional TV case, I can't imagine a government program (or government influenced one) which demanded a person from Kansas City, Denver, Charlotte or The Villages to go to Facility #358 in Durango or Facility #223 in Hermosillo (or even know in where in Mexico these places are) for treatment of anything.

Medical tourism has been around for quite a while. There are several interesting websites on it, and a few companies make quite a lot of money on it. The biggest customers are folk from countries with national care programs who seek options other than wait forever or were denied as not-economically-worth-the-cost.

For those living near the border and willing to drive an hour or two to save money by being treated where there is no recourse for malpractice, that's "risk management" at its ultimate. It's an option, but scary when mandatory.