Health Care in Medellin... my story...send me yours...

Health Care...   Use US plan?  medicare?  local plan govt funded?  Intl health plan corps?  Going "naked"? 



Kathleen Peddicord in helr newsletter sells a very good synopsis of medical care for US citizens abroad.  See her "Live and Invest Overseas" newsetter/magazine.

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MY HEALTH CARE......GRINGO AMIGOS here and interested persons outside of Colombia, I take several (lots of) medications and at EPS, socialized, subsidized health care, the month's supply is 2,400 COP, that's a dollar twenty in US dollars.... If the doctor adds a medicine to my list the price stays the same for the bag full of EXPENSIVE pharmaceuticals.. USA arm and two legs, here virtually free on a EPS health program. My recent 12 day hospital stay cost me $86 US.

I went naked...   means no insurance at all---for a week's stay at Hosp Pablo Tobon Uribe in Barrio Robledo, voted one of the ten best in Latin America, for an ulcer complicated by other factors in my health profile.  It was six days and cost me out of piocket, :going naked: $6. 500 000 COP... about $3200 dollars US.    Still VERY CHEAP!!!!

Two years ago I fell off a bus (damned cowboy driver took off when I was only halfway exited.)  Surgery for prosthetic upper arm an a ten day stay at Medellin General, $14,000 USD.  But I was covered by the local govt because it was a public transportation accident!!!   I was still on Kaiser from the US so my $800 USD out of pocket as eventually repaid to me  (so many phone calls and so much red tape)  by Kaiser. 

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YOU KNOW of course, that Medicare does not cross the border.  It is useless to me under current law. TOTALLY UNFAIR in my humble opinion. And stupid of the system because medical care  etc in Medellin costs so little.  If I were not otherwise covered here I might have to fly to the US, if I were able, to get Medicare treatment in the US at US PRICES!!!  Paid for by the US medicare plan and other taxes..  Very Stupid.  My $14,000 dollar hospitalization here and operation would have cost you taxpayers, who knows,  a half million USD$$$$$   ???  BTW I cancelled my Medicare, o now if I go to the US  I am not covered, and of course I have to pay the ACA fine ($95) at tax time for being uncovered.

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Sura Prepago is very good... no wise cracks from the Lleras crowd of whore mongers and silly old men...please.  But it seems that there are several levels and some do not pay for prescriptions....  CAN YOU help explain SURA, Sura Prepago and other plans???

Douglas Allen 6:42pm Dec 17 Wow, yeah I pay a similar monthly fee ((( I pay $89 USD for all of us, Bea, her daughter and me for Nueva EPS))) for SURA. SUrA is supposed to be the best insurance in Colombia. Why don't you have SURA?

Larry Rose 6:31pm Dec 17 Don't know about Sura... I am with Nuevo EPS. $89 dollarw a month for the coverage I described. And I also have EMI for the family... ambulance and doctor visits in the home!!!~ Just call 'em up and a doctor comes to your home with ECG and other equipment as needed. Wow....

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Douglas Allen 5:17pm Dec 17 Larry, I have SURA and I pay quite a bit of money each month for my medications, more than $400 a month for prescriptions as SURA does not cover them. How do I get my prescriptions covered? ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;         GOING NAKED... no local insurance...relying on out of pocket expenses being very small... and they are.... but.....remember my ulcer story.   I ain't rich and am still paying back my relatives for helping me meet the very low cost....  but it's a lot for me.  On  the other hand I paid $40 US for full srvices of an ophthalmologist in Ciudad del Rio Med Center... Treatment for scratched cornea, meds free, glaucoma test, vascularization test for diabetics, and a new prescription for glasses...and follow up was free.  And Doc spoke perfect ingles AND was a knockout Paisa.. and a real blond! Now NuevaEPS would have paid the cost of an in house Nueva ophthalmologist.