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Hello,
Can anyone direct me to some information about health care costs while living in Costa Rica? Do you still need to buy medical insurance? What is the quality of health care available? Any information would be appreciated
Thanks,
TerriTerri this is a disputed issue. Some love the Caja some hate it. I have had mixed results. 80% of the time I hate it. If I had to rely on it only, I would feel totally vulnerable.
The question one should ask of anyone who says the caja is great is “if you could have private insurance that allowed you to choose your doctor with the same benefits as Caja insurance, which would you choose.” Unfortunately, most who say the caja is great/good are those who cannot afford private insurance.
Now I am not slamming those who cannot afford private insurance.
I am just saying they have a prejudice because that is what they can afford.
It’s better than nothing but there have been so many literal horror stories. If you want to know one of the most tragic than look up Richardson and Warneke. Richardson withered away with little attention until death and Warneke had several leg amputations some while severely under medicated and without adequate anticoagulation medications that could have prevented the amputation.
Look, my opinion is that most Ticos dislike Americans. Also they think all Americans have money so they look at you as cheap if you use the caja and have a “what are you doing here sucking up the resources of our underfunded over streached system when you have money for private care” look on their face.
Well you are at their mercy, so think about it. And this culture takes very little seriously and hardly strives for excellence. So if you are looking for excellence in anything (besides weather, drinking, sex and gossip) you came to the wrong place. Yes a few Ticos are very good at what they do and strive to be good. I have never met one that strives to be innovative and excellent. If I go under the knife, I want someone who defines himself by his excellence.
I had an x-ray after a tree limb broke and bashed me and it was relatively fast and confirmed I had no fractures. So that was useful and I believe paid for my years worth of MANDATORY Caja payments. Would I go under the knife of a Caja/Costa Rican surgeon playing God to a gringo?
No way.
Any surgery is a gamble but if I was seriously ill I will use my international coverage to high tail it back to a developed country and take my chances there. No doubt in my mind.
That includes the touted private hospitals here too. I had an emergency surgery in Cima and the jackass anisthiologist collapsed my lung.
In my opinion: Ticos are children playing grown-up games.
I have been here a long time, your mileage may vary.
[quote=”TerriC”]Hello,
Can anyone direct me to some information about health care costs while living in Costa Rica? Do you still need to buy medical insurance? What is the quality of health care available? Any information would be appreciated
Thanks,
Terri[/quote]See what you can find out about the national health care system. Unlike many expats my wife and I use the CAJA and are quite satisfied with it. I believe it is on a par with the private health care system.
CAJA has found ways to effectively reduce cost of care through non-duplication of technology, use of dormitories rather than private rooms. Together we pay less than $100 per month and have found ways to bypass the delays and long waiting lines that it seems most expats are unwilling to explore.Private health care is available through insurance or by paying cash for services.
Altogether, Costa Rica is a top medical tourism destination which should tell you much in itself.
[quote=”2bncr”] The question one should ask of anyone who says the caja is great is “if you could have private insurance that allowed you to choose your doctor with the same benefits as Caja insurance, which would you choose.” Unfortunately, most who say the caja is great/good are those who cannot afford private insurance.
Now I am not slamming those who cannot afford private insurance.
I am just saying they have a prejudice because that is what they can afford.[/quote]
When we first moved to Costa Rica we decided to give the CAJA a try since we were required to pay for it whether we used it or not.
Since moving to Costa Rica my wife has suffered two unrelated cancers, heart blockages requiring stents, fibromyalgia, diabetes, arthritis and gout plus many issues as a result of chemotherapy for cancer.Whether we could affors private insurance with all of their limits on pre-conditions or not I cannot answer.
What complainers do not mention is the rate of malpractice, missed diagnoses and mistakes in prescriptions that are made in the States. My mother died as a result of prescription errors after surgery in the States.
Not everyone is willing to find out how to work within the CAJA system as we have nor are they willing to admit that things go wrong wherever you are.
[quote=”2bncr”]Any surgery is a gamble but if I was seriously ill I will use my international coverage to high tail it back to a developed country and take my chances there. No doubt in my mind.
That includes the touted private hospitals here too. I had an emergency surgery in Cima and the jackass anisthiologist collapsed my lung.
In my opinion: Ticos are children playing grown-up games.
I have been here a long time, your mileage may vary.[/quote]
The medical staff in Costa Rica, from specialists to nurses, is educated either at the University of Costa Rica or at universities in the States or Europe. They are as good as you will find in “the developed world”.
I have yet to meet a CAJA doctor who has not spent time in the U.S. or Europe in an internship or practice.The CAJA hospital San Juan de Dios is one of the top cancer centers in the world. My wife’s heart surgeon, along with another doctor in Brazil, developed a method of placing multiple stents in the heart in one surgical operation.
Her oncologist and heart surgeon have private practices as well as working in the CAJA.[quote=”TerriC”]Hello,
Can anyone direct me to some information about health care costs while living in Costa Rica? Do you still need to buy medical insurance? What is the quality of health care available? Any information would be appreciated
Thanks,
Terri[/quote]I live desperately on $964 social security a month. CAHA $60 a month. I’ve been told the cost of CAJA should be less. Have I been scammed? I do not know. What would private insurance be? At 77+, I am lucky I’ve not experienced illnesses or accidents.
As far as comparisons of med care in USA and CR: Before I came here, I experienced medical malpractice in Mass. General Hosp., supposedly one of the top hospitals in the States. I did NOT sue because I have as much fear of the incompetence of the courts as I do of hospitals. One of the People’s problems is that our society personifies judges and doctors as gods, when, in fact, they are absolutely not. As many of them were at the bottom of their classes as on top.
if you joined ARCR you could get their group rate which is about $45 a month for CAJA.
100,000 people a year die in the US from taking medication.
another 200,000 die from med interactions, or wrong doses.
another 100,000 die from infections in hospitals and medical errors. the US doesn’t even rank in the top 20 countries for providing good medical care. i think it is number 34 and costa rica is 35.
i know people who had great care at the CAJA hospital. and i know people who has rotten care at CIMA. the goal should be to try and stay healthy and avoid all doctors, medications, and hospitals unless it is a matter of life and death.
[quote=”maravilla”]if you joined ARCR you could get their group rate which is about $45 a month for CAJA. . . .
[/quote]How much does it cost to join ARCR?
Maravilla,
Sure anything can happen anywhere but,
If you were seriously ill and had to see a doctor, where would you go? Caja or private care.
A direct answer of “Caja or private” will sufice.
I think you will chose to dance around this question. That should tell the original poster something.
Look, like I said, if you are un insurable or don’t have the resources, then the Caja is a God Send, but the so is Medi-cal in the US and its free. I have to pay the Caja. And I use it but only for emergency or low risk situation such as blood work.
The bigger question to me is if you can afford it, which would you choose?
I have not heard one answer yet.
Or if they both were available at the same cost and terms, I doubt few would chose caja care.
My Tico neighbors cringe when told a simple ultra sound will take a year.
Come on.
Sure there are some that can get in front of the line because they have connections. But what does that say about the system? Doesn’t that just move someone else further back? That type of uncaring behavior is commonly accepted when it comes to Costa Rican government systems where it seems that most Ticos feel they are being cheated so its cheat or be cheated.
The Caja is underfunded and understaffed.
How many operations were delayed because of a strike?
How long did doctors go unpaid in yet another crisis a while back?
The caja is what it is; to me it is a semi functional safety net with a lot of holes.
Take your chances. I prefer a net with fewer holes.
Hey I wish the Caja was great. It would save me extremely high premiums. But I think that the original poster deserves a realistic view of the caja.
It’s a broken system by most accounts
What happens in CR if one is NOT paid up in CAJA and one does NOT have private insurance AND one has, for instance, a stroke?
Good question.
As I understand it, any hospital must “stabilize” you. That means you have to be in condition to be moved to a caja hospital if you are not already in one. There I believe you will be treated and released. As to what extent I do not know…
[quote=”barbaracjohnson”]What happens in CR if one is NOT paid up in CAJA and one does NOT have private insurance AND one has, for instance, a stroke?[/quote]
I know what I would do……get my ass to the hospital, emergency, as soon as possible and find someone to pay me up as soon as possible. Very,very few are ever turned away in an emergency situation. By the way, don’t go to CIMA.
you cannot become a legal resident without joining the CAJA. and if all you have in income is less than $1000 a month, you won’t be able to get legal residency here anyway, and i doubt that you would want to have to travel outside the country every 90 days and hope you get another 90 days when you re-enter. so already this is kind of a moot point. while i do know people who live on less than a thousand a month, me included, those people have a capital reserve for emergencies.
if i were seriously ill, i would probably use the CAJA simply because i don’t trust any doctor more than any other. you only THINK money buys you better care. it’s not necessarily so.
Hospital Metropolitan would probably be my first choice in an emergency. I felt like a hostage a Cima after my emergency surgery there and the staff attending the nursing station was rude. Lots of big egos, don’t ask me why (and the food sucked) although my surgeon who was an older doctor that cut his teeth in the Caja was personable and seemed caring. I am not saying that adequate doctors do not exist here buy health care is a complicated equation at best and I want as many variables on my side as possible.
“probably” leaves a lot of wiggle room…
I don’t doubt for one second you would want to be in a comfortable private room rather than a dorm and I don’t doubt for one second that you would want to choose your doctor rather than get who ever is on duty. And I don’t doubt for one second that you would want to have not only an abundance of pain or other medications but the latest and best non-generic type. Caja! yeah right.. err I mean “probably…” If its your leg being amputated I am sure you want to be sufficiently medicated, unlike Mr Warneke (Hospital Mexico).
“you only THINK money buys you better care. it’s not necessarily so.”
Yeah well I only think money buys me a better house and a better car and better clothes and better schools and better dental but its not necessarily so.
Well if you are in a 2000 ton building crumbled by an earthquake it is not necessarily so that you will be killed. But I wouldn’t bet on it.
For me I’ll err on the side of the best money can buy. Funny how that money stuff can bring out the excellence in Americans in America. But it isn’t necessarily so right, yeah right, but the odds are by far in your favor.
By the way I believe Scott has private worldwide coverage insurance, I may be wrong. Does that say something?
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