DontMindMe
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- Sep 7, 2011
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Ceviche said:
It depends on your personal situation and what you're comfortable with, but I lean towards no. I had insurance in the U.S. through my dad because of my age. I was glad I had it in the end. But if you're full time in Argentina with no plans to leave anytime soon and have a support system there, I don't think it's necessary to go out of your way and buy some crappy, expensive U.S. plan. But if you bounce back and forth between the two countries, it's probably a good idea to have some kind of coverage in the U.S. in case of emergency. But do keep an eye on all this import restriction stuff. It's just bad news all around for the medical community.
Here are my personal pros and cons of private BA healthcare, both from my perspective as the patient many times over, and as a surgery patient's in-case-of-emergency person.
General pros of private healthcare in BA: Accessibility and general affordability compared to the U.S., ease of making appointments (no need to call months in advance), getting to take your test results home, doctors spend more time with you and aren't in a rush, waits aren't typically that long before appointments...I know, that last one surprised me too. I think the longest I ever waited was 45 minutes past my appointment time. If you are en blanco, the law allows you to leave work for medical care. Also, you just get more for your $. My boyfriend had surgery and we stayed overnight in the hospital. He had a private room. It was all included in his 210 plan, except for the imported screw they put in his knee. In the U.S. he would have spent thousands of dollars for the surgery, and they would have kicked us out as soon as the anesthesia wore off.
Cons: Quarterly price hikes, Import restrictions, lack of technology which affects organization (stuff gets lost when it's all on paper) as well as care, occasional typical porteño attitude--apathy and snide attitude (not nearly as bad as at gov offices, but still there among the support staff), typical zoo-animal like treatment of young women by some male doctors, lab techs, etc., lots of running around town to labs instead of getting everything done in one place (not all labs have the capabilities for certain blood tests and other medical tests). If you are en negro, hopefully your boss is understanding and won't screw you. Because when you have to go to the doctor, then go to the lab, then go back to the lab days later to pick up your results, it gets time consuming. There is no sending of results, or calling in of prescriptions. It's all in the patient's hands, and it's a huge pain in the neck. When I had the swine flu, I called in sick to a teaching job when I woke up at 7 a.m. feeling like I was going to die. My boss was furious that I hadn't given her a day's notice. Well, the day before I hadn't been sick. I spent all day at Swiss Medical (pre-OSDE). She gave my job to someone else, even though my planned vacation started two days later. I didn't know about AFIP threats then or maybe I could have done something about it.
