Health Care in Argentina - Help Please

[katiiearmstrong]

Hi!!

I am moving to BsAs in Jan and looking at health care. I need your expert expat brains and wealth of experience please! I am 23, no dependents or spouses, healthy (other than bad eyesight).

• Travel insurance from home (Aus) or health insurance from Argentina? Love to hear your experiences.
• Plans to applaud or recommend?
• Do plans cover optomotrist visits and related costs? (glasses and contact lenses)
• Do plans cover orthodontic work? (braces/plate - non cosmetic)
• How quickly do plans kick in so you can use its benefits? (In Aus, when you sign up, there is a period of time you have to wait before you can utilse some services/treatments - how quickly could I be covered to go to the optomotrist and get new contact lenses?)
• What kind of costs do you think I am looking at per month?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts! Gracias por tu ayuda! Katie

 

[studiodio]

Expat connection offers group health insurance through Medicus...I pay about 125 US dollars per month for top plan.....it does include eye and dental, and you can use it right after getting enrolled....Dental is only partially covered....glasses and contacts are only partially covered (there is a copay).....there are other plans that are popular with expats like swiss medical, but the Medicus plan is the only one I know of that offers a group rate for foreigners....therefore, more for your money

 

[orwellian]

Health care here is free, you don't need any insurance. Although the public health care is not so good so if you are looking for top quality health care I suggest you email either Hospital Aleman or Swiss Medical with the above questions.

 

[davonz]

I was looking at this earlier in the year, and i think it was around 200 pesos (NZ$80) per month for health insurance here - but it may have gone up as i have friends who have complained about the increase in their health insurance.
I pay NZ$600 for travel insurance for a year, which covers the world, and the trip here, the only restriction being that i am not covered for the US, except for transit (up to 5 days i think), and not covered for work related accidents (if i was to work here) - but can be upgraded, so it works out alot cheaper for me with travel insurance.

 

[orwellian]

I was looking at this earlier in the year, and i think it was around 200 pesos (NZ$80) per month for health insurance here - but it may have gone up as i have friends who have complained about the increase in their health insurance.

Obviously the better the quality the higher the costs. I think Swiss Medical is around 300 pesos for a standard plan.

 

[JHB1216]

I am moving to BsAs in Jan and looking at health care.

Katie are you going to be working here because most companies will provide health insurance. I am with OSDE with my current employer and they are good because you can go straight to a specialist and many speak English. They cover full glasses one year and lenses the second year. My wife tells me they also cover laser optic corrective eye surgery but she is Argentine so I don´t believe her. Sorry I don´t have a cost on OSDE since it is not an individual plan.

Before I started working I was with the Italian Hospital which was less than 200 pesos a month with the same deal for glasses. I think that the plans kick in right away for certain things and in full after 90 days. I have no experience with people getting braces here but I think dental care is not part of the medical plans.

The public health system is good. My in-laws and friends work for various public hospitals. But they are typically over crowded and limited in the services that they can provide.

Hope this helps a little.

 

[Ashley]

You should definitely check out OSDE, Swiss Medical and the expat offer with Medicus. I know that OSDE and Swiss do under-25 plans which are great value (I don't think they cost more than 300 pesos). You should probably ask about the glasses/lenses issue though. I was on a basic Swiss plan last year (paying almost 400 pesos) and my lenses/glasses were not covered (although all optician/optometry, etc was covered, as was dental work...not sure about braces). I'm on a much better Swiss plan now (through my husbands work so not sure what it costs) and all of that stuff is covered.

 

[MizzMarr]

I think at 23 you would qualify for the OSDE "Neo" (for people 18-25) plan. I'm over 25 so am on the plan above that and pay $640 pesos a month. It's kinda expensive, but OSDE is the best plan around. That said, the NEO plan is probably a lot less espensive, but there are also a lot of less expensive alternate plans available to the public, too. For what it's worth, a lot of the time you can save a ton of money and just go to a clinic and pay 50 pesos if you get sick and need treatment. Of course that doesn't help if you get mowed down by a bus or fall off a building or something, I guess it depends if you want to play it safe. Also of course there are the free hospitals. Good luck!

 

[jp]

My wife tells me they also cover laser optic corrective eye surgery but she is Argentine so I don´t believe her.

Guessing you're joking, but they do cover this. You need to be over certain corrective thresholds (+/- 3 in total) but then they do it for free, providing you've had the plan over a year. I tried to get it done last year, only to be told that at 2.75 my eyes weren't wonky enough. Bah...

I'd definitely recommend getting insurance, whilst public hospitals are free, and the staff have excellent training in the event of an accident you'll need to pay for all the drugs and equipment you need for treatment or surgery, and the costs for that can rack up very quickly. Had a friend in an car accident who ended up having to pay several hundred dollars for screws to pin his leg back together, and they couldn't operate until his family had bought all the medical supplies needed for his operation. Not a position you want to be in!

OSDE, Swiss Medical and Medicus are all excellent, worth speaking to all of them to find out what current prices are.

 

[azure]

I have the OSDE under 25 plan, and it's great. Now medications are much cheaper (if I have a prescription), and all my doctor's visits so far have been free. They just raised my premium, but I think it's around $300 or 325 pesos/month. Either way, if you have insurance or not, hospital visits are free but I've had a hard time getting decent treatment there (at least compared to what I'd get in the US).