Published by: Kiran Sreenivas on 7/13/2011 3:51:51 PM
While most people brag about their hometown winning the Super Bowl or being the birthplace of a celebrity, I get to gloat about my birthplace and hometown being the cheapest place to live in the U.S.
Last month Bloomberg Businessweek named Harlingen, Texas the cheapest place to live. This claim to fame is based on price data from more than 340 urban areas provided by the Council of Community & Economic Research. Overall, the cost of living in Harlingen is 18% below the national average.
This is not the first time Harlingen and the surrounding Rio Grande Valley have garnered attention regarding living costs. In 2009 Atul Gawande wrote in the New Yorker about McAllen, Texas having the highest Medicare expenditures per enrollee ($15,000) second only to Miami, Florida where labor and living costs are much higher. McAllen is a short 40 minute drive west of Harlingen and ranked as the 4th cheapest city in the U.S. Harlingen’s Medicare expenditure per enrollee in 2007 was $13,531 according to The Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care Gawande used. The national average was $8,682. That’s right folks; my hometown is building a dynasty when it comes to financial extremes.
What about the population under 65 years of age? In 2010 a study published in Health Affairs compared claims data from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas for McAllen, Texas and El Paso, Texas. El Paso was singled out because it has similar demographics and their Medicare expenditures were a paltry $7,504 per enrollee as pointed out in Gawande’s New Yorker article. The Health Affairs study found total health care expenditure per member in McAllen to be 7% lower than in El Paso.
That 7% fails to tell the whole story of extremes people go through in my hometown to reduce their health care costs. My mother got all her dental work done in Mexico (25 miles south). My high school teacher got LASEK in Mexico. Family friends would fill their prescriptions for cholesterol and blood pressure medication in Mexico. This is all in addition to avoiding doctor visits and passing on preventative action that costs a little in the short term even though it saves money and your health in the long run.
There is no direct link between low cost of living and high health care costs. The second cheapest city in the U.S. had reasonable Medicare expenditures per enrollee ($7,135). It is more complex than that. Various factors like health literacy probably play some role. I wish I had the answer. I do believe Harlingen’s business boom of 2008, which involved opening a new steakhouse and a new Starbucks four miles away from the first Starbucks built three years earlier, probably does not help the situation. If only Harlingen could latch on to the craze for yoga studies and creative salad restaurants.
Regardless, Harlingen will remain a town I am proud to call home. And while people may not be able to relate to me about enchilada Wednesdays in the school cafeteria and pep rallies with your own high school mariachi band, they can always bond with me over their expensive medical bills.
Harlingen, Texas Pueblo, Colorado
Cheapest City Rank: #1 Cheapest City Rank: #2
Monthly rent for 2-Br Apt: $659 Monthly rent for 2-Br Apt: $723
Gallon of gas: $2.65 Gallon of gas: $2.66
Half-gallon milk: $1.99 Half-gallon milk: $1.84
Total Medicare Expenditures Total Medicare Expenditures
per enrollee*: $13,531 per enrollee*: $7,135
*According to Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care
^ Living expense data from Bloomberg Businessweek