Medical Insurance for RVer while in Mexico

[rocmoc]

There is a discussion on the BajaNomad site about someone having a major medical event while on vacation in Cabo, http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=74155. The outcome was less than favorable!

So what does a RVer do if only in Mexico for a couple of weeks? What does a RVer do if in Mexico for the winter? Yes, I know we have posted before about evacuation insurance but I am asking more about treatment and the cost are a higher amount.

I have my plan (credit card/cash & reimbursed by Plan F Medigap plan) but am interested in what others plan to do?

rocmoc n AZ/Mexico

[Almot]

PS:
Have just checked MASA. Haven't seen yet a service of this kind that would provide THAT little information on website 🙂

News #1, bad one: they will not take you "anywhere". They don't offer you a choice. They will only take you to a "nearest appropriate medical facility". In this, they are similar to $40 DAN or free evac included in travel medical, and consider that MASA costs upwards of $500 a year.

News #2, good one: It looks like they are not "evac plan", but rather a "ground and air ambulance plan". The only plan that says that they will take you from some place near "home" to an appropriate hospital. All other plans say that will take you to a hospital only if you fell ill (and have been hospitalized, this is a usual condition) at least 99 miles from your main home. Doesn't matter for snowbirds, as they are always away from home. For permanent US and Canadian expats in Mexico this would be a good plan.

Skymed (same expensive as MASA) is also talking about "100 miles waiver" in their documents, but it is not clear when and how they apply this waiver. From what I understood, they will transport you from location less than 100 miles from your home to a hospital, but only to nearest appropriate hospital. When incident occurred more than 100 miles from home, they will take you to a hospital of your choice.

So... As much as I don't like Skymed for making simple things sound complicated, at the same high cost as MASA they at least offer a choice of hospital to expats when those expats are traveling 100 miles from their main home.

[Almot]

moisheh wrote:
Almot: Not all stand alone plans will take you anywhere. There are 2 that do; Sky Med and MASA. These are not cheap. Over $300 a year. Anything that costs $100 or so will not be of much use.

No, not all. Many will, however.

Skymed is THE most expensive, and the only thing to their advantage is that they guarantee a renewal at any age. Their North American Transportation plan starts from $600.

Medjet will, and it costs same or less than Skymed, depends on how long you stay out of country every year.

Geos also will, and costs less than Medjet - individual evac plan from Mexico costs $120, from USA/Canada $100.

MASA I don't know - will check it out, thanks.

And there were few others that I don't remember, expensive, with included rescue option in addition to evac. Geos have a rescue option separate and very cheap, btw, but they require you to have one of approved communication devices to use rescue option - sat phone or texting/emailing gizmo like DeLorne, Spot etc.

Of popular standalone plans that don't offer choice of destination hospital, I only know DAN. Maybe there are some others, but with DAN being so cheap, and with no-choice evac already included in a typical travel medical, I didn't look too hard.

[moisheh]

Almot: Not all stand alone plans will take you anywhere. There are 2 that do; Sky Med and MASA. These are not cheap. Over $300 a year. Anything that costs $100 or so will not be of much use.

Moisheh

[Almot]

Forgot to mention: built-in evac option may turn out to be completely useless. These evac plans only take you to the "closest" hospital capable of treatment. So if you are in Cabo, the insurer may decide that local private hospital is "capable". You might not want to go there because you don't trust them and don't want to pay big $$$ and then be reimbursed later, and instead want to fly to the US or Canada - but built-in evac plan won't cover this flight. Air ambulance may cost dozens thousand, and even a regular commercial flight on a short notice will cost a lot.

This is why I mentioned standalone evac plans - most of them will give you a choice of destination hospital. It's still neither a perfect, nor guaranteed solution. I remember a post where it took 14 hours from the 1st call in Acapulco to arrival in San Diego hospital, and this is during a daytime on a weekday. Imagine it happening in a small town on Friday evening. Many Mexican airports don't even work after dark.

[silversand]

Thanks Almot. I've been playing with that linked quote generator (adding/changing all sorts of age/medication/situation scenarios).

I ran many, many hypothetical future health scenario (for multiple countries). One just has to beware of countries currently on the Canadian Foreign Affairs "no travel" list.

[Almot]

silversand wrote:
So, I imagine that *supplemental* health travel insurance (with built-in evac) cost would vary widely for "Canadian" between 57~60 and 60~65 and 65~say 75 for a 4~6 month stay (a purchaser in excellent health, on no meds for previous 5+ years) ?

Yes, it would vary. And they usually ask to fill Questionnaire if older than 65, no matter how good is health. And then - of course - they will void the insurance if you make one mistake answering questions, no matter whether your sickness on the trip was related to that question or not.

To get an idea of the cost quickly, check Kanetix. 4-6 months is called a "Single Trip", and "Multi Trip" means (I think) several trips no longer than 30 days each, within a year. The robot will ask for email - just give them any random abcd@abcd.com address, if you're not ready to buy.

[silversand]

So, I imagine that *supplemental* health travel insurance (with built-in evac) cost would vary widely for "Canadian" between 57~60 and 60~65 and 65~say 75 for a 4~6 month stay (a purchaser in excellent health, on no meds for previous 5+ years) ?

I used to use Amex health travel insurance (Mexico & Central America), and Blue Cross years ago, but never needed to put a claim in.

[Almot]

Robatthelake, you have a good chance to be fully reimbursed by provincial plan after Mexico. Most services are 2-3 times cheaper than approved rates of the provincial plan, but there are also crooks like that private hospital in the OP. It also depends where in Mexico. Healthcare in Baja Norte is more expensive than mainland, and Baja Sur is more expensive than Baja Norte. And there are some super-expensive hospitals both in Baja and mainland.

[robatthelake]

Regardless of whether You buy travel Insurance or Not, You will get screwed over! I have found it less painful in Mexico than in either the USA or Canada!

That said We do buy Travel Insurance ,but only with a $5,000 Deductible!

Any time that We have visited a Clinic or Doctor in Mexico ,We have been reimbursed fully by BC Medical for Everything that We submitted Receipts for.

Obviously We have Not had any really traumatic or serious happen to Us while in Mexico. I did contract Food Poisoning at a Restaurant in Mexico that was operated by a Canadian however .

I suffered severe dehydration and required Ambulance Service ..Free.. And several litres of Electrolyte ,some prescription drugs ,blood tests and several visits to the clinic.

I believe the total cost was under $260.00 .....BC Medical and Pharmacare repaid Us all but $10.00 which was the Tip that I gave the Ambulance Attendant.

[Almot]

Mex, if this is a Federal law, then any doctor should comply. No matter what hospital he is in. There could be separate hospital charges of course, especially in case of private hospital. Do you have any link to that law?

Amerimed Hospital in Cabo I mentioned not because of quality, but because it's on the PPN that provides direct payment to hospital. It's a membership plan for expats distributed from Guadalajara, low group rates, very high deductible. They have PPN in both US and Mexico, but no participating hospitals anywhere in Baja, except for Cabo where us mortals don't camp. A plan like this implies that you "live" in Mexico, status doesn't matter but you must have a semi-permanent address where you stay, say, a winter every year.

This is the only plan of this kind that I could find. The trend is new, hopefully more plans will come in future. Here is their PPN. Highlighted red is GDL because this is where that Focus group is based. Like all the gringos live in Chapala area. I feel claustrophobic in places like that 🙂

"Best Doctors Inc" is just a pretentious brand name, don't try to read too much into this.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Almot would you trying "borrowing" money from Louie-The-Louse on a street corner?

GO TO AN IMSS OR SEGURO POPULAR FACILITY TO GET STABILIZED. ONCE THE STABILIZATION IS COMPLETE THEY WILL LET YOU KNOW IS NO UNCERTAIN TERMS THAT FROM THEN ON, IT'S PAY AS YOU GO.

Yeah it's like me buying a used car. I don't seek out used car salesmen dressed in Paisley suits and fluorescent ties. Sort of common sense. "American Hospitals" prey on people JUST AS BAD as some US Attorneys prey on Mexicans. Charging them several hundred dollars for a free document the applicant could have gotten from a post office.

STABILIZE AND FLEE. I did it the end of December. Stopping at (3) facilities on a 700 mile journey. No charge. Time to use your head.

[Almot]

qtla9111 wrote:
You get what you pay for just like in the U.S. and Canada. If you have money, you get better care and service. If you don't, you get what the system can afford to give you.

Speaking of "system", - it's not that simple. Public healthcare in Mexico is represented by programs Seguro Popular and IMSS (I guess the latter can be called public too). You will get a decent care in Guadalajara public hospital. Not everything is covered under SP, it's not like in Canada, but more-less. Public hospital in Ensenada would be a step down, La Paz - lower yet, and if you go to "clinica" in some St. Rosalia or Mulege - you are not going to like it. The difference between decent and very poor hospitals is very substantial. I'm not saying that obscure places of Canadian North will offer a better care, but generally, the gap is less striking.

Speaking of "better care for better money" - the gap between low-cost and expensive hospitals in Mexico is not just big, it's huge. The bill can be 10 times higher if you compare public hospital - where foreigners can go, but they have to pay out of pocket - and big gringo-oriented private hospital.

[qtla9111]

I've lived here thirty years and have never heard such rubbish about healthcare in Mexico.

You get what you pay for just like in the U.S. and Canada. If you have money, you get better care and service. If you don't, you get what the system can afford to give you.

If you have a tendency to get sick it may be better to stay home. I'm traveling Canada and the U.S. until the middle of August and have been on the road since April. I can't wait to get back home to Mexico.

[Almot]

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:

But by federal Mexican law, doctors MUST stabilize a patient enough to allow transport to a facility of their choice. At no charge.

Do private hospitals know about it? :)... Could I crawl into a private Hospital Americano in Cabo or Hospital Angeles in Tijuana and have them stabilize me (keep me alive, whatever their stabilization would entail), until I'm ready to book an air ambulance across the border?

[Almot]

rocmoc wrote:
There is a discussion on the BajaNomad site about someone having a major medical event while on vacation in Cabo, http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=74155. The outcome was less than favorable!

So what does a RVer do if only in Mexico for a couple of weeks? What does a RVer do if in Mexico for the winter?

Couple of weeks or a winter - doesn't matter, you buy travel medical.

The guy in the link didn't do his homework - to put it mildly.
Yes, Mex hospitals don't accept direct payment from US insurers, you have to pay out of pocket and then bill the insurer, everybody knows that. This guy didn't.

Yes, emergency evacuation is expensive, this is why people have evac plans. This guy didn't have evac plan, and - the article is a mess but - it also sounds that he didn't have ANY travel medical, because most travel medical plans (99% if not 100%) have evac included.

So, - get travel medical.

It's also a good idea to have a better evac plan than the one included in travel medical. Evac plans that cover initial stabilization DO exist. Geos Alliance is one of such plans, costs $120 a year, though they only cover stabilization $1,500 a day for 7 days and don't accept people after the age of 75. This is a standalone evac plan, not emergency treatment. There are other evac plans, but Geos seems to offer the most bang for the buck.

Cheaper IMSS hospitals were mentioned - yeah, well, they are cheaper but they are only good in big cities, while in smaller towns it's joint to avoid at all costs. Same with public hospitals - you could try it in Cabo or Ensenada or Mexicali, not in smaller towns. Though an average US or Canadian tourist normally speaks little or no Spanish, and in IMSS or public hospitals very few personnel can speak English.

Edit-PS: a minor correction. Mex hospitals that accept a direct pay from insurer also exist, usually limited within PPN and for long-term plans, snowbirds can buy it but a weekend tourist can't. Suerte.