When traveling to a foreign country, health care is of course, a major consideration especially when you love it so much that you are considering relocation. The health care that can be obtained in Puerto Vallarta is excellent, yet very accessible. Mexican physicians are trained to the same standards as in the US, hospitals and clinics are clean and modern, a full range of treatments and therapies are available and services and medicines are of the same high-quality and amazingly inexpensive.
The health care system in Mexico is a combination of public and private programs. On the public side is significantly IMSS. It is the government provided healthcare vehicle, considering that the ‘all-inclusive’ coverage costs less than $30 per month and any Mexican resident can qualify for it, even foreigners so it is not a bad alternative.
The coverage is quite broad and operates like an American HMO: it includes consultations, tests, hospitalization, surgery, medicines, even basic dental and optical as long as you use the ‘in-system’ practitioners.
No government system is perfect and IMSS is no exception. Details can be obtained at the IMSS website (http://www.imss.gob.mx/english. ).
Many of the health care practitioners on the Private and public hospitals in Puerto Vallarta are trained in western countries like the United States. Many more attend the excellent universities in Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey. Most of these Mexican physicians even make house calls.
You could expect that medical care in the private clinics in Puerto Vallarta would be as good or better and considerably less expensive than anywhere in the US.
Health insurance is just as economical as so many other things in Mexico. There are many options available, including international plans that cover you regardless of where in the world you require treatment.
Currently, the process of dealing with US Medicare reimbursement is a bit clunky, but there are currently about 800,000 American expats in Mexico pushing for a streamlined process for Medicare reimbursement of Mexican medical treatment, including a lobbying group (http://www.medicareinmexico.org/. ), working to demonstrate the importance of extending benefits to expats and the substantial economy of doing so.
Whether you are traveling to Puerto Vallarta or relocating, health care would not be a major problem.
For any questions or concerns regarding Puerto Vallarta and the surrounding areas, do not hesitate to contact us.
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