How much do healthcare and medical services cost in Yucatan: Riviera Maya, Playa del Carmen, Cancun, Merida, etc?
Alfonso Galindo - I Go Yucatan
Medical services in general can be from 45% to 80% less than your cost would be in the US. I base this on personal experience and what I’ve read about procedures such as hip replacement, heart surgery, knee surgery, teeth implants, etc.; the general stuff that people at certain age usually look for. Relative to my personal experience, I will generally take my daughter to the public healthcare system. If she’s really sick, then I...
Medical services in general can be from 45% to 80% less than your cost would be in the US. I base this on personal experience and what I’ve read about procedures such as hip replacement, heart surgery, knee surgery, teeth implants, etc.; the general stuff that people at certain age usually look for. Relative to my personal experience, I will generally take my daughter to the public healthcare system. If she’s really sick, then I take her to her private doctor, which costs me about 400 pesos (US $24) to go see a specialist. There are many clinics, usually in pharmacies. One pharmacy has a doctor in there 24 hours a day, which gives you free consultations. There’s another pharmacy where I can have a doctor look at my daughter or myself for $4.
(Child protected with helmet and healthcare, pictured.)
Posted September 14, 2015
Doug Willey - Doug Willey, Independent Real Estate Consultant
The cost of health care and medical services here in Yucatan Peninsula is a bit hard to narrow down because there are so many different medical procedures so I will just give you an example. Three years ago, my wife had a hysterectomy and three other associated surgeries, for surgeries total. She had been having problems for a week or so and I said, “We have to see a doctor because you’re not getting any better and in fact, you’re getting worse.” ...
The cost of health care and medical services here in Yucatan Peninsula is a bit hard to narrow down because there are so many different medical procedures so I will just give you an example. Three years ago, my wife had a hysterectomy and three other associated surgeries, for surgeries total. She had been having problems for a week or so and I said, “We have to see a doctor because you’re not getting any better and in fact, you’re getting worse.” So I called the doctor and the doctor said that they need to do a blood test and several other tests so they would see what all the problems were. So my wife underwent a blood test, a urine test, and a slew of different tests, which I can no longer remember.
We went back to the doctor the following day and the doctor read the results. He said, “You need to have these problems fixed immediately so they don’t get any worse.” I said, “Okay, fine. When can we do it?” And he said, “Well, when do you want to do it?” I was kind of being a joker, so I said, “Well, how about today?” So he said, “Hang on…” He turned around, grabbed the phone behind his desk, got on the phone, talked for about 3 minutes, got off the phone, and he said, “The front desk has your wife checked in. She’s going into surgery tonight at 8 PM.”
They did the surgery, which took about 5 hours. Then my wife spent about four days in the hospital. They were monitoring her to make sure everything was okay, that there were no infections, etc. Then it came time for us to check out.
Here in Mexico, they do things a little differently. In Mexico, when you go to the hospital, you’re not allowed to leave until you pay the bill. If you can’t pay the bill, you have to stay in the hospital until you come up with the money, which took a little getting used to because in my opinion, all you’re doing is making the bill even higher. Anyhow, they told me how much my wife’s hospital bill was. I told them, “Okay, let me just run to the bank and withdraw the money.” I came back and paid the bill. For the four surgeries, all the tests, 4 nights in a private room (which was very nice with a leather couch right on the side of the bed where I stayed the whole time), the bill was around $3,100.
When we got back to the house, we called some friends of ours who are in the medical profession. My wife explained to our friends what all that was done to her in the hospital. The nurse who my wife was speaking with said, “Well, if you add a zero to that amount, possibly, you could get it done in the US, but probably not.” And the other thing that she said was getting one surgeon to do all four surgeries would never happen in the US. They would do one surgery, send you home, wait a week, schedule you back in, and your bill will just go up and up.
Another thing that my wife had done recently was a root canal and then she had a porcelain cap put in. The whole procedure cost about $300, which would cost well over $1,000 in the US. The dentist here did an excellent job.
(Merida Clinic, Merida, Yucatan, Mexico, pictured.)
Posted December 15, 2015
Gary De Spiegelaere - Celestun Properties
Healthcare and medical services in the Yucatan is cheap. One of the best doctors that we go to only charges $35 per visit. A blood test, to check your cholesterol, and other similar tests cost around $30. An x-ray costs $15. These costs are at the higher end. There are many other places that are just as good but don’t belong to the big clinics, so they do not cost as much. I had to get my gall bladder removed and they did it by making two small...
Healthcare and medical services in the Yucatan is cheap. One of the best doctors that we go to only charges $35 per visit. A blood test, to check your cholesterol, and other similar tests cost around $30. An x-ray costs $15. These costs are at the higher end. There are many other places that are just as good but don’t belong to the big clinics, so they do not cost as much. I had to get my gall bladder removed and they did it by making two small incisions. I spent four days in the hospital, with the first day in the emergency room. My initial visit was at about 7 PM. I was diagnosed and underwent laboratory tests at around 6 AM the next morning. Then I was prepped for surgery. The surgery went from 7 AM to 9 AM. I spent two and half more days in the hospital. The total amount that I paid, which included everything from the hospital stay, surgery, lab tests, and medication was CA $2,000 out of pocket, without insurance.
You can also get insurance here in Mexico. It is very easy to get insurance here and a lot of expats have it. If you get your insurance before you are 60 years old, you will get coverage of at about $400 a year. That covers you pretty much for everything except for prescriptions. You can also get special expat insurance, which is around $1,000 a year.
You may also qualify for the Mexican government insurance, which you would qualify for once you get your permanent residency after two years. It costs only $300 to $400 a year and it covers you for everything. It was my personal choice to be treated at the private hospital but usually, a lot of the doctors in the private hospitals are also connected to the government hospitals, so the private and public hospitals usually have the same doctors. The difference is in the facilities because the private hospitals have better and more advanced facilities compared to the public hospitals.
If you are taking some prescription drugs to control your cholesterol, for example, you can bring your container of prescriptions here in Mexico. In North America, you might be paying about $3 or $4 per pill. You can have that converted into the generic brand, which is exactly the same pills that are manufactured to the same standards but they cost only about 30 cents per pill here in Mexico. I actually take prescription drugs back to my friends in Canada, who cannot afford the prescriptions. You are allowed to take 90 tablets back.
Generic brand prescription drugs here in Mexico are very cheap. Every major chain sells generic drugs here in Mexico. One major chain here is called Aurora, which has about 150 pharmacies in Merida alone. (Merida is the largest city in the state of Yucatan, with over one million inhabitants.) In Mexico, you need a doctor’s prescription in order to buy antibiotics but most of the drug stores have doctors in their drug stores, who provide free service. The doctor will diagnose you, he will give you your prescription, and the only thing that they want you to do is buy the prescription in their store.
In Celestún, where I live in a little village of about 7,500 people west of Merida, the cost of drugs here is about 50% more than the cost in the cities like Merida. There is a new hospital in Celestún that was built a year ago.
Recently, there was a tourist visiting us who, while having breakfast, had a sinus problem and was in quite a bit of distress. My wife took that him and his wife over to the Mexican public hospital. They treated him, gave him medication, and wouldn’t allow him to pay. They told him, “No, you can’t pay for anything in this hospital even if you’re a foreigner. We have no mechanism to charge you. We just want you to feel better.”
The quality of healthcare and medical services in the Quintana Roo (another state in the Yucatan Peninsula, which includes Cancun and Playa del Carmen and is generally referred to as Maya Riviera) are the same as in Merida but it costs more in the more touristy places. But once you establish a rapport with the doctors there then I think the price would be about equal with Merida.
(Dr. Robert H. Page of Tempe refers patients to Mexico for medical tourism, pictured.)
Posted December 23, 2015
Paulina Almeida - Tao Real Estate
Hospitals in the state of Quintana Roo (includes Cancun, Cozumel, Playa del Carmen, Tulum, and here in Akumal) are really cheap. If you walk into a doctor’s clinic in a recognized hospital here in the Quintana Roo area, you’ll be charged around 500 pesos ($25) for the consult, follow up checkup, and medicine. This is a qualified, experienced, and well-trained doctor.Here in Quintana Roo, doctors who have clinics in hospitals charge a little more than doctors who...
Hospitals in the state of Quintana Roo (includes Cancun, Cozumel, Playa del Carmen, Tulum, and here in Akumal) are really cheap. If you walk into a doctor’s clinic in a recognized hospital here in the Quintana Roo area, you’ll be charged around 500 pesos ($25) for the consult, follow up checkup, and medicine. This is a qualified, experienced, and well-trained doctor.Here in Quintana Roo, doctors who have clinics in hospitals charge a little more than doctors who have their own clinics because the doctors pay the hospital about 100-200 pesos ($5 - $10) in fees. If you go to a private doctor’s clinic in Quintana Roo, it will cost around 300 - 400 pesos ($15 - $20).
On average, surgery costs around 100,000 pesos ($5,000) including the costs of staying in the hospital, follow ups, medicine, and everything else. For example, an appendectomy, which has become common in the Riviera Maya (includes the most well-known areas of the state of Quintana Roo), will have a total cost of 100,000 pesos, including three days in the hospital, medicine, and all other charges. These are all charges that are just out of pocket and without insurance.
(Graphic for Victoria Medical Cancun, Cancun, Mexico, pictured.)
Posted March 14, 2017