How much do healthcare and medical services cost in Puerto Vallarta?
Audrey Royem - Ai Real Estate Group
Healthcare and medical costs are very affordable in Puerto Vallarta. Most doctor consultations cost 500 pesos (about US $30) for a highly qualified doctor. Any sort of study that you would get done is a fraction of the price that you would pay in the States.Most people in the Puerto Vallarta area pay out of pocket for healthcare expenses. There are people who have major medical insurance for that rainy day that we hope never comes. Hospitalizations are a fraction of what you...
Healthcare and medical costs are very affordable in Puerto Vallarta. Most doctor consultations cost 500 pesos (about US $30) for a highly qualified doctor. Any sort of study that you would get done is a fraction of the price that you would pay in the States.Most people in the Puerto Vallarta area pay out of pocket for healthcare expenses. There are people who have major medical insurance for that rainy day that we hope never comes. Hospitalizations are a fraction of what you would pay in the States without insurance or maybe even with insurance.
If you’re feeling ill, you can have a consultation with the doctor in Mexico the very same day or if it’s some sort of a more specialized care issue that you need, you wouldn’t have to wait long. The doctor will sit with you, talk with you, and understand the issues that you have. You don’t feel any pressure to leave the office. The doctor takes all the time necessary to really understand what your needs are. And then you can follow up with phone calls. Doctors here usually give you their private phone numbers, their cellphone number, and sometimes they’ll take your cellphone number and they’ll follow up with a phone call later that evening with you. Compared with the states, here in the Puerto Vallarta area, you feel like there’s a much more personalized level of care that you’re getting.
(Surgical staff at Hospital General de México Dr. Eduardo Liceaga, Mexico City, Mexico, pictured.)
Posted March 17, 2016
Antonio Trejo
I deal with medical and healthcare situations all the time because I am in charge of the health and travel department at our insurance brokerage company. The healthcare costs in Puerto Vallarta are pretty affordable, especially when compared to the healthcare costs in the US or Canada. You need to carry a policy to protect yourself if you are in an emergency. I’ve been involved in cases where our clients had to pay out of pocket, which could be...
I deal with medical and healthcare situations all the time because I am in charge of the health and travel department at our insurance brokerage company. The healthcare costs in Puerto Vallarta are pretty affordable, especially when compared to the healthcare costs in the US or Canada. You need to carry a policy to protect yourself if you are in an emergency. I’ve been involved in cases where our clients had to pay out of pocket, which could be substantial even here in Mexico. I know someone who broke his ankle about 3 years ago. He went to a private hospital here and he had to pay over $10,000. So you can see that having a health emergency could really affect your financials.
Going to a specialist here in Puerto Vallarta costs about 600 pesos ($32). If you go out to see a general practitioner, you would pay about 500 pesos ($27), so there’s really not much of a difference. That would be the cost during the initial visit, which normally takes longer. It could take about 25 minutes up to an hour because your doctor will ask a lot of questions about your medical history, your family’s medical history, and your symptoms. They will record everything, create your file and make a medical record so they can keep track of everything.
On your second and succeeding visits, or once you’re a regular patient of a certain doctor, you will pay about half that amount.
(Health practitioner, Mexico, pictured.)
Posted June 27, 2016
Paul Mayer - Vallarta Food Tours
My wife and I have health insurance. It’s an American company but it’s much cheaper than what we had in the States. I’m paying about US $1,300 a year for myself with a $5,000 deductible. I’m fully covered up to $1.5 million and the only stipulation is that you have to live 6 months out of the US. If you do that, then you are qualified for this type of insurance. For my wife and the kids and me total, we’re paying about $2,800 a year. My wife and I have health insurance. It’s an American company but it’s much cheaper than what we had in the States. I’m paying about US $1,300 a year for myself with a $5,000 deductible. I’m fully covered up to $1.5 million and the only stipulation is that you have to live 6 months out of the US. If you do that, then you are qualified for this type of insurance. For my wife and the kids and me total, we’re paying about $2,800 a year. Healthcare here in Puerto Vallarta is affordable. We had both our kids here and the first one was covered because we paid the rider to be covered but for the second one, we realized that the rider was more expensive than the actual thing. Our second child was 6 weeks premature so they had to have three doctors, an incubator, and each doctor had at least one or two nurses next to them. Thank God nothing happened and we didn’t need but they were all on watch. They were all there. We spent two nights and three days in a private room and we paid about $2,000 for everything.
My dad is American and he always says that what we have now here in Mexico is more like in the US in the past. He had something removed and the doctor told him to come back in two weeks for a follow up checkup and they never ever charged for follow-ups. If my mom happened to be there, they would check my mom for free.
Here in Mexico, it’s not really all about money, which we experienced when our son was born. Our doctor talked to the other doctors who were there and even though they didn’t do anything, they were still on standby and they were still there in the middle of the night. They gave me a great rate anyway.
A lot of things we pay out of pocket and we have to take our son to the doctor when they are sick but for the most part, the cost for a consult is 500 pesos (about US 21) every time. In the States, I don’t go to the doctor as much but here, we go to the doctor even if it’s just a small thing and get prescribed something. There is a lot of humanity involved in the healthcare in Mexico, which makes it nice.
(Hospital Medasist, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, pictured.)
Posted July 28, 2016
Sheryl Novak - SOLutions Mexico Furniture Store
One of the most often asked questions I get is, “What about your healthcare?” or “What are you going to do about your healthcare? How are you going to pay for it?” It’s important for people, especially for Canadians, to know that there are numerous health insurance programs available globally. We Canadians are not used to going out and sourcing healthcare plans because it’s covered by our taxes and our government program as long as we are not out of...One of the most often asked questions I get is, “What about your healthcare?” or “What are you going to do about your healthcare? How are you going to pay for it?” It’s important for people, especially for Canadians, to know that there are numerous health insurance programs available globally. We Canadians are not used to going out and sourcing healthcare plans because it’s covered by our taxes and our government program as long as we are not out of Canada for more than six months a year. Here in the Puerto Vallarta area, I pay about CA$1,200 (US $900) a year, and I get health coverage for catastrophic worldwide. I also have a CA$5,000 (US $3,800) deductible which does not cover dental or eye care, but you can get dental and eye care here in Puerto Vallarta for less than you can get it in Canada, so it’s not an issue.
A lot of Canadians don’t realize that they can actually buy insurance in Mexico for CA $1200 (US $900) a year. Insurance shouldn’t hold you back from coming to Mexico for more than six months or for full time. It’s a big thing because I get asked all the time, “Oh you’re Canadian and you live here full time? What about your healthcare?” It’s a huge point for Canadians, because they can’t wrap their heads around it.
If something should happen to me, for instance, if I get hit by a car, I’ve got coverage so that I don’t get wiped out financially, but I don’t even bother submitting claims for regular doctor visits because it’s so little it’s not even worth my time submitting a claim.
For a regular checkup, it would cost around 600-700 pesos (US $29 to about US $34) out of pocket. About 3 or 4 years ago, I zigged when I should have zagged, and I ended up with a disc problem. I could barely walk then. I went to my local chiropractor, who said to me, “This is worse than you think it is, and we need to send you for an MRI because I’m not going to try and adjust you without knowing first what the situation is. I need to see it.”
My first reaction as a Canadian to “you need to go for an MRI” is “Oh my goodness. MRI?” In Canada, you have to wait for 4 - 6 months to get an MRI after getting on a list. I said to the chiropractor, “How long will this take?” And he said, “As long as it will take you to drive to Vallarta.”
My husband drove me to Vallarta, and we got there within half an hour. Waiting for me at the clinic with the MRI were the attendants who had a wheelchair ready for me when I got there, and they got me into the MRI right away. I did the MRI, and we drove back to the chiropractor with the results. The total cost? US $300.
I tell my family members and my friends in Canada that if they think there’s something wrong, or they’re not feeling right, they can come to Puerto Vallarta and get the tests done here, and they’ll know the next day what the issue is. You can also choose how you want to deal with the results- you can go back to Canada, go through the system there and have it taken care of if it’s not something that’s life-threatening, or you can take care of it here in Puerto Vallarta, where you can have it done the next day. Time is very important when you’re talking about your health.
In Canada, that’s one of the biggest issues. When you inherently know there’s something wrong, you want to know right away what it is so that you can start treating it. With the Canadian system, it takes time. With the Mexican system on the other hand, you’ll immediately know what it is and decide right away how to have it treated.
(Office at Chiropractic Health Center, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, pictured.)
Posted February 3, 2017
Peter F Gordon, MD - Lake Medical Group
A typical office visit or consultation with a doctor in Puerto Vallarta is between 500 pesos to 700 pesos (about US $28 to $40) and there might be outliers at 800 pesos ($45). These costs are about a third of the cost of an office visit in the States. In the States, an office visit to a doctor would last 5 to 10 minutes. In Puerto Vallarta, an office is at least 30 minutes to an hour directly with the physician. The setting of an office visit in Puerto Vallarta is also...
A typical office visit or consultation with a doctor in Puerto Vallarta is between 500 pesos to 700 pesos (about US $28 to $40) and there might be outliers at 800 pesos ($45). These costs are about a third of the cost of an office visit in the States. In the States, an office visit to a doctor would last 5 to 10 minutes. In Puerto Vallarta, an office is at least 30 minutes to an hour directly with the physician. The setting of an office visit in Puerto Vallarta is also different than in the States. In the States, the clinic is set up with the patient being greeted at the front desk. They are then taken back by a nurse or an assistant where basic things are done and put in a room where the patient sits, waits, and provided a magazine or a screen to look at while waiting for the doctor.
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In Puerto Vallarta, when you arrive at the doctor's clinic for an office visit, the doctor is ready for you. You go directly into the room where the doctor is and he is with you the whole time. There are no nurses, aides, or anyone in between. You spend your time directly with the physician so you're getting more than your money's worth at a much-reduced cost.
I have patients coming from the States and especially Canada who said that they have long wait times to get diagnostic procedures done. They come to Puerto Vallarta and say, "How long do I have to wait?" I say, "Do you want to do it today or tomorrow?" They're surprised and want to know how much it costs. Laboratory procedures, diagnostic tests, and surgeries in Puerto Vallarta hospitals cost about a tenth, at most half, of what the procedure costs in the States.
An MRI in the States or Canada might be $4,000 to $5,000. In Puerto Vallarta, an MRI costs 4,000 pesos to 5,000 pesos (about $225 to $282) and the quality is the same as the quality of an MRI in the States. The cost of other laboratory procedures in Puerto Vallarta is also a tenth of the cost of laboratory procedures in the States, which is very inexpensive.
Hospitals in Puerto Vallarta accept credit card payments.
The results of diagnostic tests and laboratory procedures in Puerto Vallarta are usually emailed. We don't deal a lot with paper anymore because everything's on the computer. I would get test results of patients on the same day or sometimes the next day. The physician in Puerto Vallarta would contact or call back patients for results, what to do, and where to go from there.
As part of my specialty, I assist with surgeries in Puerto Vallarta, which is not something I am able to do back in the States. When I send a patient over to a specialist for things like fractures, a hernia, or for an appendicitis, the surgeon expects me to scrub in and assist them. This is nice because this was part of my training.
For example, the cost for a hernia repair, including fees for the hospital stay, physician, anesthesiologist, and operating room time is 40,000 pesos to 50,000 pesos (about $2,250 to $2,800). In the States, the cost of a hernia repair is ten times the cost in Puerto Vallarta.
For knee replacement surgery, people come to Puerto Vallarta to have it done here all the time because it's less than half, if not less, the cost in the United States.
Most of the people who come to Puerto Vallarta for medical reasons don't have health insurance. For those who have health insurance from where they come from, they can have procedures done in Puerto Vallarta under medical programs that we're instituting that would allow acceptance of their health insurance.
Medical programs in Lakeside (the area on Lake Chapala generally between Chapala and Jocotepec and surrounding areas) have contracts independently with over 350 different insurance companies in the US and Canada. A person's health insurance policy would be reviewed for them. If they qualify, this allows them to go to the hospital for a co-pay of 500 pesos (about $28) or see a doctor for an office visit for a co-pay of 100 pesos ($5.60) with no deductibles and co-insurances. The co-pay cost is their total out-of-pocket expense and everything else gets covered, whether it's laboratory procedures, x-rays, operating room time, and hospitalization.
(Dr. Peter Gordon and his staff, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, pictured. )
Posted October 6, 2017