Healthcare in Mexico

One of the main reasons people give about not wanting to move to a foreign country is “What if I get sick?” Most Americans will definitely want to keep their US health insurance plan for major medical emergencies of course. However, when you are living in a large city in Mexico, it hardly becomes necessary. It about one month our 6th child will be born here in Puebla, Mexico.  Of our children, only the oldest was born in the states.  When we were expecting our second child, we came to realize that the doctor was the most important factor for healthcare in Mexico. The hospital facilities are not as backwards as some would automatically think. We are blessed to live in a major city with good hospitals.  In fact, our city is home of the Puebla’s Children Hospital.  Puebla’s Children’s Hospital is THE major hospital for public healthcare for most of southern Mexico.  If people are sick from as far as Chiapas, they might be flown in to the hospital here.  But back to my story.  As we are getting ready for baby #6 we went to the hospital – La Beneficencia Espanola – to register.  Since we don’t have insurance, we pay privately.  We went to fill out the paperwork so that when the day arrives we would be all ready.  I know this will be hard to believe, but the rates for the hospital part of the bill are incredibly low!  The package includes 2 nights and 3 days in the hospital and is only about $350 USD! Now from experience we will tell you that by the time we get out the bill is going to be closer to $900 but that is going to include all of the medicine, treatment, and so on. That does NOT include what we pay our doctor or her medical team.  When we were in the states a few months ago, we had to take little Hannah to the emergency room for stitches.  She had 4 stitches on her eyebrow.  FOUR.  The bill came to $1000 more or less including the hospital and the doctor… which we found out later are two separate charges! So basically, the cost of 4 stitches in the states and the cost of having a baby in a nice hospital in Mexico are about the same!  I could go on and talk about how ultrasounds here cost $25 and the ultrasound I had done in the states a few months ago was $250 but I won’t.

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