The price here is good in relation to what you get, quite unlike that in the States. However, I believe that's related more to people who pay for their healthcare than people who get it through the free government hospitals. Never forget the difference between the two.
I have heard mixed stories about government hospitals here.
I have a friend who lives out in the sticks somewhere to the east of the city who had a medical problem and visited the hospital out where he lives. He says he received good attention, although the place wasn't very clean or well-repaired. He says he was treated very well, but also mentioned the fact that he was a foreigner and felt that had something to do with it - he was the first foreigner anyone there had treated, at least at the hospital itself.
I've heard other good stories as well.
Recently, however, I had occasion to enter a government-run hospital. Almost 5 ago months now (well, recent is relative) my wife's brother's wife gave birth to a beautiful little baby girl. We went out to the hospital to visit her. The hospital was in Barracas (don't remember the name). It wasn't in a horrble state of repairs, but it wasn't exactly well-maintained or particularly clean either.
It turns out that the staff is very short, at least in this particular hospital. They had ONE GUY who ran their gurneys, and the day the woman went to the hospital, he was on vacation and she had to walk up three flights of stairs to get to the maternity ward. The elevators weren't working.
The ward itself was enclosed behind a single door, with a Nurse Ratchett-like nurse guarding it fiercely. Only one person at a time was allowed in. The room in which she was staying was a bit run down and she shared it with three other women, out of six beds. Not terrible, really.
But she had to provide someone to stay with her because they had a lack of nurses. It was literally a requirement. My wife ended up staying the night with her, and ran out to get her water and food from a nearby kiosco because the hospital didn't supply it, at least not for new mothers.
My wife has also has had some pretty horrendous experiences with local hospitals with two of her brothers who live and work here, as far as the way they treat Paraguayans. And her brothers are not free-loaders - they are hard workers who work in the white and pay their fair share of taxes.
So to me, the goodness and affordability of the healthcare system here is all relative, as many things in this life, as to how much money you have and what "station" in life you occupy.
I have Hospital Aleman insurance, and it is indeed quite cheaper than anything I would pay in the States. It is also a very well-run and well-maintained hospital. It has state-of-the-art equipment and doctors with whom I feel comfortable. It also has numerous clinics throughout the city and Gran Buenos Aires with which it has agreements for reciprocal care so you aren't locked in to going only to the main hospital on Puerrydon and Beruti.
