Health Insurance

[VonAwesome]

Anyone know any good options for this down in CR? Looking for family coverage with one child. Don't need an awesome deductible but am interested in looking at my options. Obviously I want to be able to go somewhere besides San Juan de Dios so something that covers doctors in CIMA. If anyone has or knows of a good option down here let me know.

Thanks

 

[JudgeWapner]

I have a plan through INS. About 2k a year for me and the old lady. Can use CIMA. I got it through Garrett and Associates 22332455.

 

[VonAwesome]

Thanks Judge!

 

[AdamSelene]

I have the $200,000 Regional INS policy, and it's grossly overpriced.

For approximately the same cost, I'm switching to a $5,000,000 Global policy by Guardian Life underwritten by BAC Financial.

http://www.yourpartnerforlife.biz/guardian.html

You can email my insurance agent. a s e i n i -at- r a c s a . c o . (you know the country code)

 

[AdamSelene]

Regarding CIMA, you typically need to pay out-of-pocket and get reimbursed. This is the same both INS and Guardian, unless it's a procedure you can schedule in advance. The smallest deposit CIMA requires to check-in for in-patient care is $2,000 plus an open credit card voucher. So keep a high-limit credit card around that is available only for health care expenses.

One advantage of INS I guess is they have a desk at the CIMA front desk, I haven't tried the BAC/Guardian yet so I can't compare the process of pre-approving procedures or submitting claims.

 

[wolfie_cr]

One advantage of INS I guess is they have a desk at the CIMA front desk, .

I am sure that the guys at CIMA are more useful.......but the INS guys that are (were? ) at Clinica Catolina (on my side of town).......are......well......

they waste the available oxygen as they breathe and do nothing

 

[AdamSelene]

they waste the available oxygen as they breathe and do nothing

LOL.

I never even tried, I just gave my claims to my INS insurance agent; and while she's a very nice lady willing to do leg work, INS simply isn't competitive. I can't wait until I can get a different provider for car insurance.

Oh, and BTW, INS will only do electronic tranfers (SINPE) to an account in colones, not dollars.

 

[Tortillera]

La Caja your best option ya ask me..Its cheap and no long lines if your a Gringo

 

[AdamSelene]

La Caja your best option ya ask me..Its cheap and no long lines if your a Gringo

I'd assume you're being sarcastic, but I won't.

I don't support socialism nor socialists, but given the new immigration law forces all foreigners to join Caja, how do you do it? Flat fee, no way I'm paying any % if income to pay for something I refuse to use.

 

[wolfie_cr]

La Caja your best option ya ask me..Its cheap and no long lines if your a Gringo

CAJA is good if you are ultraultrafucked (say heart transplant .........or similar )

for stuff as simple as a broken arm......its 100000% better to just pay

 

[Tortillera]

I'd assume you're being sarcastic, but I won't.

I don't support socialism nor socialists, but given the new immigration law forces all foreigners to join Caja, how do you do it? Flat fee, no way I'm paying any % if income to pay for something I refuse to use.

Wife put me on it.....

 

[Tortillera]

CAJA is good if you are ultraultrafucked (say heart transplant .........or similar )

for stuff as simple as a broken arm......its 100000% better to just pay

Disagree, but hey wont be the last time.Caja much better sys than anything here in the States by far...Ticos dont realize how lucky they have it with Caja

 

[ChristianTroy]

we do have one of the best health care systems in latin america, of course people are going to hate, and its obvious it has its flaws, but glad all you mother fukcers dont have to pay for things you cant afford, such as health care, like the shit load of people that cant.............

 

[AdamSelene]

I like the system much better here than is proposed to be in the U.S. or is already in Canada. Here you have public health care *and* good private health care which the government doesn't try to socialize.

Although I wonder if U.S. healthcare reform will be a benefit or detriment to private heath care here, given it's substantially supported by medical tourism. Could go either way; on the one hand people not wanting to wait years for procedures can come here instead, on the other they'll no longer have private health insurance that will cover it.

 

[wolfie_cr]

Disagree, but hey wont be the last time.Caja much better sys than anything here in the States by far...Ticos dont realize how lucky they have it with Caja

I am not comparing CAJA versus US, I am comparing CAJA versus private care here in CR

We have the best of both worlds........can't pay? CAJA......covers anything for free (with all the limitations of waiting years for relatively simple surgeries or having to game the system etc etc)

if you have $ you can pay (and its not ridiculous prices like the US)

 

[Tortillera]

i am not comparing caja versus us, i am comparing caja versus private care here in cr

we have the best of both worlds........can't pay? Caja......covers anything for free (with all the limitations of waiting years for relatively simple surgeries or having to game the system etc etc)

if you have $ you can pay (and its not ridiculous prices like the us)

 

[wolfie_cr]

btw Tortillera, to clarify my point was

if you have a broken arm, you are going to be in line with A GAZILLION people and possibly for quite a while and you will be just a number in the system.............a broken arm is low priority when there are bunches shot/injured from car crashes etc

in that case, if you can, its much better to just pay, I for instance know someone who guy unlucky and had his arm in a cast......and there was an open wound which got infected so on and so forth blabla.......

however I also have the case of my dad who needed at least 5 surgeries for prostate cancer (And the complications and secondary efects that came afterwards), he paid CAJA since he was 16 (which of course doesnt benefit in the least because you cant retire before 'x' age)

but anyway

he got a lot of $ paid back to him as the system took care of him (he did have to play the game a little bit by calling someone who knew someone who was a doctor in the hospital)

as a Tico the thing that pisses you off is when reports come out in the newspapers that read like this "CAJA buys equipment worth x million of dollars....then puts it in storage and never uses it for years......equipment now useless due to humidity damage"

as anything the goverment does.....there is a built-in inefficiency factor

but since here noone thinks long term (or short term) there has to be a minimum system in place for everyone......otherwise people would be dying on the streets

and I just remembered that when my dad was having his surgeries at the hospital......there was another guy in the bed right next to him

Tico that lived in the US for many years...professional and making money

it turns out that for whatever reason he couldnt pay for his treatment in the US / didnt have enough insurance or something

he came home...paid caja for 3 months or so ...then went to the hospital where he was 'freshly' diagnosed with prostate cancer and he got his surgeries.

 

[wolfie_cr]

private heath care here, given it's substantially supported by medical tourism. Could go either way; on the one hand people not wanting to wait years for procedures can come here instead, on the other they'll no longer have private health insurance that will cover it.

two things

a) private care here is also substantially funded by the CR goverment......they pay a lot to the private sectors when they can't supply a given treatment /perform certain tests

b) I was hearing the other day that there are quite a few insurance plans that allow medical tourism in order to lower costs, I dont remember where I read that, probably the Tico Times

 

[AdamSelene]

a) private care here is also substantially funded by the CR goverment......they pay a lot to the private sectors when they can't supply a given treatment /perform certain tests

That's not funding, that's patronizing. They aren't funding it any more than I do by paying for services, or the Canadian government "funds" U.S. healthcare by sending its citizens there for procedures. "Funding" infers paying for costs without consideration for receiving directly correlated benefits, or subsidizing it, and that's neither the case. Unless they're paying more for services than anyone else would, which I doubt. If they're like Medicare/Medicaid in the U.S. they're paying *less*, in which case they are a parasite, being subsidized by all other paying customers.

b) I was hearing the other day that there are quite a few insurance plans that allow medical tourism in order to lower costs, I dont remember where I read that, probably the Tico Times

Yes, U.S. insurance plans now do cover procedures in Costa Rica. Obama-plan may not. Under Obama-plan only people that already have insurance plans (and don't let them expire as most corporations will do to their employees) can legally have insurance. Basically private medical insurance becomes illegal in the United States.

 

[wolfie_cr]

That's not funding, that's patronizing.

you are right of course, I used the wrong word. The term you used (supported) is what I should have said. They pay more that they could have paid if they would have done it themselves....but their own inefficiency prevents them from getting the equipment/resources they need in a timely fashion. Its normally high end stuff like MRI etc that they can't totally cover with their own equipment and are forced to outsource to the private sector.

Basically private medical insurance becomes illegal in the United States.

I wasn't aware of that at all. So suposedly the situation goes from "not being able to afford a plan" to now only have "one option to choose from as private plans are illegal?"

do you have a link that explains that provision of the plan?