The Amish do like to travel just like their English counterparts. Some are flocking to Mexico and Canada, but not for a vacation.

Several Amish have decided that Mexico is a better place to get treatments for their ailments, because of high medical costs in America. Or they are heading north to Canada for cheap drug prices. Since the Amish don’t have health insurance like the English, they are looking to save money. Instead of health insurance, the Amish community puts money in a fund to take care of medical costs.

Some Amish call the Mexican doctors knife happy as they have a tendency to cut out as much of the cancer or problem as possible.

In fact, some Amish don’t go to the hospital or the doctor unless they feel it is absolutely necessary. Many don’t take preventative measures for their children either, which ends up costing them in sickness later. For example, the Amish can get their children immunized for chicken pox, but they don’t. The next thing you know, their kids are all suffering from the red, itchy bumps.

Another preventative measure could be against whooping cough or pertussis. Children can be vaccinated against the disease. The parents and other members of the family, age 11-64, could get a pertussis booster. Pertussis can be very serious and even fatal, particularly in children less than six months of age. Some Amish children have suffered the cough for up to eight weeks – a needless suffering.

Flu is another disease that spreads quickly through Amish communities. It is especially deadly to the very young and very old. The Amish can be immunized against the disease, but many choose not to.

Diseases take their run through Amish communities like a hurricane claims victims in its path. The reason is because the Amish community is much more closely knit than the English. They work together, practice religion together, go to school together and socialize together. And they sometimes don’t take precautions like immunizations.