Best Health Insurance Option

[sergio]

"...Hospital Aleman is considered the best hospital. I have insurance here for over 10 years, its great. Real simple, you buy insurance, your 100% insured. Not like the my beloved corporate controled USA where you buy insurance and your only partially covered with deadly limits".


REALLY? News to me. I have quite the opposite impression.

 

[Sojourner]

"...Hospital Aleman is considered the best hospital. I have insurance here for over 10 years, its great. Real simple, you buy insurance, your 100% insured. Not like the my beloved corporate controled USA where you buy insurance and your only partially covered with deadly limits".


REALLY? News to me. I have quite the opposite impression.

Just fyi, my wife (Argentine) and I (USA) priced insurance at Hospital Aleman (in person) a few months back - elderly (70's) minor ailments but less than usual and basically active and healthy all things considered. Cost per person per year quoted to us: $12,000 US. Needless to say we are looking elsewhere. My wife should be able to re-activate a plan for teachers she held long ago. Age and condition can obviously affect pricing greatly. If that Hospital Aleman number seems high to anyone - yes, imagine our reaction!

 

[sergio]

Sojourner, I am not at all surprised at the price that you quote. The reason is your age and the fact that you would be a new client. One of the few good things the Kirchners did was to get a law passed that prevents health insurers from raising fees for clients who turn 65 or 66. In the past fees almost doubled at that age but under the current law if you have a certain number of years in the system they cannot do this. Had you been in the system the premium would probably be less than half the quoted rate. Since you are a US citizen you are presumably covered by Medicare which of course is useless in Argentina. As for the Hospital Aleman, I am not impressed. I knew several people who did not fare well there. Anyway, public hospitals are open to you at no cost. The Fernendez is the best.

 

[Ceviche]

No. you need not be a resident. But you wont be eligible for a major surgery in first 6 months

 

[Ceviche]

I concur. I am not sure, whats the fuss about Hospital Aleman. Its a v average hospital over loaded with people and long queues and average doctors,

 

[Bajo_cero2]

HA is oversold to other obras sociales. It used to be a lot better. But H Italiano has the same issue. Where HA sucks is in traumatology but surgery and nursery are great.

The worse of HA is that they have only one elder doctor by deppartment (traumatology for example) and a lot of idiots who cannot take decisions, read prescribe real painkillers while at Clinicas i arrived there with pain from kidney stones and immediately i got a proper painkiller because there where several doctors with the experience for taking decisions. They calm your pain fast and later the studies are slow but who cares. At HA they made the studies very fast (computered tomography) but they left me 3 days without painkillers.

At HA they abandon me the whole weekend because Friday was the birthday of this idiot, so he left early, and until Monday they gave me ibuptofeno when I needed something really strong because it was a back pain.

The loophole hospital used to by pass the law is to have a full fee where they deduct your age, so every year it raise until the limit of the law.

I suggest to do not look for the cheapest option. The portero of my office building went to his union hospital for a check and he came back with only one kidney, presumably the other was sold.

Fernandez is the best for emergencies. Duran for traumatology. Clinicas for kidney stones.

Clinicas belongs to UBA so, you are not going to suffer the racism of Macri there while at Fernandez (that belongs to the City) almost hit the Doctor (almost because he ran like a rat) because he asked in loud voice from the door of his office to my wife if she knows who the hell was the father, just because she was korean.

 

[Matthew]

I have OSDE now and I’m super happy with the customer service and network of providers. A couple years ago I had a policy directly through Hospital Aleman. That’s also a decent option (I got that when I had short-term residency and they were super helpful in setting up a policy for me).

I still go to Hospital Aleman with my OSDE coverage. I would highly recommend being treated at this hospital as they’re very well equipped.

 

[Matthew]

I concur. I am not sure, whats the fuss about Hospital Aleman. Its a v average hospital over loaded with people and long queues and average doctors,

It depends what you’re going for. If you’re going for a routine consultation in the medical clinic then yes, waiting in line can be annoying. This is because in the clinic, HA let’s you book with providers but they still allow walk-in patients to jump into the queu. In these cases, it’s probably better to book with the provider at their private office (most providers at Hospital Aleman have private clinics where they attend to their patients).

On the other hand, if you know you need to have a certain procedure done and you book in advance with a specific department (I have had a few done at HA), then you likely won’t have to wait in line.

 

[Silvie]

My CIGNA plan covers me for a max of USD 250.000/year. For the time being, I use it mainly at Hospital Aleman but can go anywhere else that I like. For the past 2 1/2 years, it's worked pretty well for me.

 

[Ceviche]

My CIGNA plan covers me for a max of USD 250.000/year. For the time being, I use it mainly at Hospital Aleman but can go anywhere else that I like. For the past 2 1/2 years, it's worked pretty well for me.

Why have Cigna? I have OSDE 310 here which works great. And for international travel I have two different travel insurance. works great..in every way.