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The cost of health insurance in Mexico is determined by how old you are, what sex you are, if you have any pre-existing conditions, and where you live. Off the top of my head, I can't give a rate because the cost of a policy is an individual thing.
Health insurance in Mexico works like any other insurance policy. First of all, these are major medical policies, which means the insurance policy would cover hospitalization, surgeries, and things like that. Some may have office visit programs, but most of the insurance policies are major medical.
Prescriptions generally are on your own. The medications needed in hospitalization would be covered under a section of your insurance policy. For month-by-month ongoing maintenance medications like the ones you take for blood pressure or cholesterol control, these things you pay out of your own pocket in Mexico, although these medications are a fraction of what they would cost if you were to buy them yourself in the US.
The office visits generally are on your own, too, although there are certain policies that cover office visits under certain conditions. For example, you may be covered for illness office visits. You may also be afforded one wellness physical examination every year. There are several different types of health insurance that you can get.
You may want something with a low deductible so that when you go to the hospital you only pay US $500 deductible. Other people might want what we would consider catastrophic policies and say, "Anything under $25,000 I'll pay for myself; just give me a low premium. If the hospitalization cost goes beyond that, I want it all covered."
There are different types of policies for different types of budgets and needs. I know that's very vague, but there are just so many different situations that I can't be tossing numbers out because there are a lot of different things that come into consideration. What I will tell you is that the cost of health insurance in Mexico is much less than what you would pay in the United States for an insurance policy.
There are some policies where if you are an American and at the same time a Mexican resident and you want coverage when you are traveling in the United States or coverage if you need something that cannot be done in Mexico and would have to be done in the United States, you can pay an additional premium for that. You could only get that type of policy if you truly are a Mexican resident. If you want that program, you must not have any coverage in the United States for the first six months living in Mexico because we have to comply with the American law on that.
The Affordable Care Act of America or what people call "ObamaCare" states that you can only have a policy like what I just mentioned if you truly do live outside of the United States. That's a big advantage for Americans to not have to pay a penalty in the United States because they are not buying Affordable Care Act insurance packages.
(Cathie Smith Insurance logo, pictured.)