Some residents oven leave the country to obtain medical help. "When I need health care, I go to Mexico," says Maria Elena Morales, who lives in Colonia La Mesa, north of Mercedes. "My mother is diabetic. We take her to Mexico every month. It costs $150. It's a ten-to fifteen-minute drive. I take my daughters there, even though they get Medicaid. Doctors here won't prescribe everything they need."