If you are will be traveling to Mexico on vacation or living in Mexico part-time:
- Prior to departure, be sure to check with your health care provider to see if you have coverage outside your home country. (For example, there is no international coverage under Medicare.) If you require coverage, you can solicit temporary coverage through travel insurance companies. Google "Traveler Health Insurance" to find a wide array of options.
If you are living full time in Mexico:
- Foreigners can apply for the national health insurance in Mexico. Admittedly, I am not entirely familiar with the process, as I have not done this personally, but it is very inexpensive and provides access to public hospitals and doctors.
- Foreigners can also apply for private medical insurance from a variety of Mexican health insurance companies. Check with your insurance broker for more details. Until now, we have had major medical insurance plans in this way. These plans are reasonably priced and cover us in the event that we rack up any major medical expenses. Our plan covered hospital stays, surgeries, etc. with a small deductible, as well as doctor visits/prescriptions after X amount had been spent per illness event. It also had international coverage in the case of emergency. In reality, we never used the doctor/prescription coverage because we never accumulated enough per illness to exceed the deductible, but more importantly, we were covered if we ever had to go to the hospital -- which gladly we didn't!
- This year, we changed to a plan being offered by Aetna Global Benefits that is designed for Expats living abroad. Under this more traditional health care plan, we have an annual deductible and can see doctors both here in Mexico or anywhere we travel.
What do you do for insurance coverage when you live or travel abroad?
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