An expat thinking about retiring in Mexico should plan ahead and investigate the different health insurance offerings.
There are two kinds of expat residents in Mexico. One type is like me who have made the choice to live full time in Mexico. We have chosen to secure a private medical insurance policy. Not all expats would be comfortable with this.
This private medical insurance policy can be complemented with the different Mexican public insurance benefits handled by IMSS or Seguro Popular that are available to expats who are living full time in Mexico.
Sometimes there may be confusion between the Mexican public medical insurance Seguro Popular and a Mexican private medical insurance company called Plan Seguro.
The other type of expat resident in Mexico would be what we could call "snowbirds," or expats who would be in Mexico four to six months and other tourists on vacation. These foreigners generally would not be able to access the Mexican public insurance. Snowbirds can have a home in Mexico, but don't stay 12 months a year in Mexico. If they want to get a Mexican private medical insurance policy, they have to live in Mexico for a minimum period of six continuous months in a year.
In general, there are two strategies for medical insurance that expats could employ if they stay in Mexico for at least six continuous months.
Strategy A would be to arrange for medical travel insurance. This would particularly be for people who haven't travelled very long or those who rent, don't own property in Mexico and may not come back to Mexico again. Some of these policies can only last a maximum of three years and then the policy owner must switch plans. Getting the travel medical insurance presupposes that a person has some other full time medical insurance. The purpose of the travel insurance is to provide medical coverage temporarily while someone is out of the service area of his primary medical insurance.
I just had Canadian clients in my office who made the choice to take advantage of a travel insurance plan that we had. He and his wife had been coming down to Mexico for a number of years and trying out different parts of Mexico. They were over at Playa del Carmen for a while and his wife had a medical incident and the treatment cost was US $400. Their Canadian health insurance plan reimbursed them for only $50. In my client's mind, it would have been better to have bought a travel plan in that case because they would have been covered and fully reimbursed.
The other strategy for expats staying in Mexico for six continuous months would be to buy a full medical insurance. Many expats do this and I have customers from Canada, and United States who annually come to Mexico part-time and they've purchased full medical insurance for years.
Some expats who stay part-time in Mexico buy a very economical catastrophic insurance plan, which is a specified benefit kind of plan. A catastrophic event is defined as one that affects both the person's body and bank account simultaneously. Having a gall bladder removed is not catastrophic because the cost of the procedure is low. Examples of catastrophic events are: cardiac by-pass surgery, strokes, cancers, or major accidents- usually vehicular.
The benefits from a catastrophic insurance plan are close to or exceed $150,000 USD / year. Individuals who get this kind of plan say, "I'm not sure I want an evacuation plan because I need to be stable before I would be evacuated anyway. The bread-and-butter minor medical conditions like a bladder infection I can pay out of my own pocket. However, if I have a major trauma, I want the peace of mind that I am taken care of."
When it comes to medical evacuation plans, many companies operate the same way and they are very clear that they are transportation companies. You want to keep your insurance in the US or Canada or wherever you have it. What happens with med-evac plans is if something happens to a foreigner in Mexico and he has medical insurance in the US or Canada, he would want to be transported back to his home country where he is insured OR back to Mexico if travelling in Central or South America.
If a non-Canadian foreigner had a heart attack in Mexico and had to be rushed to a hospital in Guadalajara, this person needs to be stabilized and pay out of his own pocket for the hospital time, intensive care services, or other services in the hospital until the hospital decides that it is safe for the patient to be moved to another facility.
There are a couple of med-evac options, but the inclusion is usually hospital to ground ambulance, to air ambulance, to another ground ambulance that would take the patient to the next hospital. The patient would not be discharged until he has found a hospital with an available bed and who is willing to accept him. The cost of how long it takes to stabilize an individual comes out of that individual's own pocket.
The agents who sell these med-evac policies have been asked, "Can you come up with a policy that covers up to $50,000 for medical evacuation?" Unfortunately, no insurance company is going to offer a plan with $50,000 coverage that would cover stabilization services. It is financially infeasible as there are just not enough people who get these types of policies.
An Air Ambulance evacuation is not the only option. There are times when patients are well enough to be accompanied by a medically-trained person on a commercial flight when transferring to a different hospital outside Mexico.
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