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I am trying to figure out what the best option is for my husband and I in terms of obtaining CR health insurance. We’ll be there next month permanently and we’ll be legal residents next month also. Neither one of us is of retirement age, we’re both in our 20’s and 30’s and in good health. Do any of you on this forum hold onto your health insurance from your respective country? Or did you opt for INS or CAJA when you moved down and do without ? I am trying to figure out what our best option is. Currently we have Blue Cross in Florida. We would also like to have children in the next couple of years, so maternity coverage for myself would be important unless having a child in Costa Rica is a LOT less inexpensive than in the states. Any help on this topic is greatly appreciated.
Edited on Sep 17, 2006 11:13
Edited on Sep 17, 2006 11:14
We are retirees and we did keep our U.S. BC/BS coverage. Our plan will only pay for care for “unforseen events” outside the U.S. but that’s not so bad.
We looked into the two plans offered by INS. Neither will pay for pre-existing conditions which I have. So that was out.
The CAJA system is an option once you become a resident. The downside is that it appears to have most of the negative features of a U.S. HMO — long waits for care, limited drug options, etc. We decided that, having had good medical coverage for years, we wouldn’t be likely to put up with CAJA’s limitations. So we’ve opted to pay cash for our care.
So far, it’s been a good experience. Two weeks ago, I had an extensive new patient appointment with history, physical, review of medications and a resting ECG with a U.S. board-certified internist. I had his undivided attention for over an hour. The bill was c30,000. A few days later, I had a colonoscopy and gastroscopy, again for cash. The bill was c330,000. My BC/BS deductibles and copays would have been this much.
David, Just a question. Have you considered the amount of money that you would be saving by going on the CAJA systme? If you save lets just say 600.00 a month would you feel better for picking up the cost of paying for your drugs?
Example: In the U.S. you have to pay 800.00 for heath care. I belive this is the average if not more. In Costa Rica you can get on CAJA and private health care for 45.00.
That is a savings of 755.00
Then if you drug bill is lets say 300.00 in the U.S.
It will probley be half or less than half so lets say 150.00That means you will pay 45 + 150.00 = 195.00 a month
If you were in the U.S. 800.00+300.00= 1100.00 a month
Would this be worth a wait in the line?
Would this be worth the hasle?Don’t get me wrong because I belive you are doing the best by paying for it your self. How ever I just want to point out to most people that putting money into the CAJA system is better than paying the high cost in the U.S. even if you have to pay for your own meds.
Lets not expect the Costa Rican goverment to give hand outs. Remember this system was and is set up for Ticos that make a lot less than in the U.S. They also have a no frils system not like in the U.S. where in every hospital they have a million dollars worth of art haning around.
Scott, in our situation, your analysis does not apply. We are blessed to be retirees from the State of Michigan. With our pensions, we get very broad Blue Cross/Blue Shield coverage, including both over-the-counter and mail-in prescription coverage, for a cost to each of us of about $27.00 a month.
I’m diabetic (dependent on two oral medications) and take meds for high blood pressure and high cholesterol. For as long as I can get a U.S.-licensed physician to write annual prescriptions for the meds I take daily, I can mail those prescriptions in and have the meds mailed back to me very inexpensively.
At least one of my meds is not offered by the CAJA system. And my endocrinologist tells me that there is some question about the efficacy of some of the meds CAJA does dispense. For a time, I purchased my meds over the counter here in Costa Rica. Nobody said “cheap”, but the cost was bearable (although my mail-in benefit is a much better deal). And, so far at least, there has been no problem getting my mailed meds through Costa Rican Customs.
The CAJA system’s monthly cost, by the way, is not $45.00. It’s means tested — the more income you have, the more you pay to participate. When we were enrolled, our monthly cost (for the two of us) was $37.00.
Thanks David for the Correction,
How ever 27 dollars is the cheapest health coverage I have ever herd of in the United States! Even my friends that are retired from the Federal Goverment don’t have that kind of bennifit. They are paying 280.00 a month. My mother has blue cross is paying 600.00 a month! For a 75 year old lady that is a lot! That means the State of Michigan is picking up a huge amount of the share of Insurance. That is a good deal!
But for the majority of people I think that 37.00 is a great deal!
I have seen many people post questions of meds and want the Costa Rican goverment to pick up more and wonder why? I ask, why look at a gift horse in the mouth? You are paying a lot less than back in the U.S.!
I read somewhere early on when I was investigating healthcare in Costa Rica that the cap for Ticos in Caja was about $17,000 — that’s all the CR gov’t expects that any person in their plan will spend IN A LIFETIME for medical care. 17 grand would barely cover a trip to the ER in the States. If our healthcare system in the States is so great how come we have so many sick people? Part of the reason is that they are given expensive drugs for which there is no scientific evidence that they work except to make more money for the pharmaceutical companies. One million people a year die just from getting medical care in the States — that includes bad drugs, drug interactions, toxic combinations of drugs, doctor mistakes, infections in hospitals. One only has to read the book “Selling Sickness” to see that we are anything but a healthy nation, and that we take waaaaaaay more pharmaceuticals than almost any country on the planet. I would hope that a change of lifestyle, improvement of diet in the way of more fruits and vegetables, more exercise, and less stress would do a lot for the health of people moving to Costa Rica — esp our boomer generation which is now being targeted as a moneymaking segement for Big Pharma. They’ll have to catch me first!!!
Huh? The CAJA system has a $17,000 lifetime benefit cap? This the first I’ve heard of that. What’s your source, Maravilla?
And yes, Scott, the State of Michigan pension system picks up 90% of our Blue Cross premium. It is a deferred payment for which we worked for several decades.
I wish I could remember where I read that, but it was from a legitimate source and when I mentioned it to a friend of mine in CR, he said it didn’t surprise him and then recounted how he had an emergency appendectomy — ambulance to the hospital, blood work, surgery, anesthiologist, and three days in the hospital — total cost? three hundred dollars! And this was three years ago. Last year he had several — three I think — surgeries for cancer, and also had radiation. Rather than go through the caja system he paid out of pocket and his total cost was around ten grand for the whole enchilada, so given what the average doctor charges and what hospital costs are in CR, seventeen grand sounds about right.
I read an article regarding the $17k benefit somewhere; I believe that was an annual limit per person.
Annual limit??? Nah! That would bankrupt the system. I think it was Christopher Howard’s book that quoted the $17,000 lifetime cap. Given the medical costs in Costa Rica, you’d have to spend half your life going to the doctors and being really really ill and having surgery multiple times a year! Think about it — if an appendectomy only costs $300, well, you get the picture. I don’t think many Ticos are running to their doctor with every ache and pain and taking a half dozen expensive pharmaceuticals at a time. The ones I know still rely on folk remedies and only go to the doctor when they have something they can’t cure themselves.
The amount quoted on the realcostarica.com website indicates an ANNUAL limit of $17,500. The amount of $17k is stated on 1costaricalink.com/goldendoor website. I have emailed ARCR to clarify the actual annual limit, but the $17k range seems to be correct.
ThanksYou might be right if you saw it on Howard’s site because it was his book that I got the 17 thou from, and it’s possible I mis-read it., Please let me know what you find out.
I went to Howard’s site just to see for myself what it said about the cap, and here is the part about the $17,000:
“There is a ceiling of around $17,000 per individual. Since medical costs are so low in Costa Rica, this policy is more than enough to take care of your medical needs.”
It doesn’t say this is a yearly cap, it simply says that it’s a “ceiling” which to me means that that’s the cap. If it were a yearly thing, I would think it would’ve stated that specifically. I didn’t look on ARCR to see if they say it’s an annual ceiling or a lifetime ceiling, but I distinctly remember commenting to my husband about the 17-thou cap (when I was reading every book I could find on Costa Rica) and we both laughed about how that would barely cover a day’s stay in a hospital in the US, or a year’s worth of a lot of xpensive meds.
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