For most people your health insurance will not cover you in Mexico. If you need to get home in a hurry you will pay thru the nose! We are here now. Came with friends Thursday. On the plane our friend started with"indigestion". It continued to get worse till yesterday when he knew he needed a hospital. People here were great. Sent him over to Amerimed hospital by cab. Then the fun began. We did have trip health insurance but hospital would not take it even though the company guaranteed payment. My friend did not let her credit union know she would be in Mexico so her card was declined. Other card limited her to $3500. Several hours in the ER and bill was mounting. They said he needed ICUs as he had a heart attack. They did treat him appropriately but if surgery would be needed they could not do it and they would not let him out without paying the $7000 hospital bill. Luckily we were able to use our card to pay. They signed out and came back to the hotel with I'V still running. My friend and I are nurses. The insurance company assigned a case manager and set up medevac transport plane complete with cardiac transport nurse. Had dr at hospital in Miami in touch with us consulting on keeping him stable till ambulance arrived at TTR to pick him up. Cath lab waiting for him in Miami. Where his is right now (still waiting on word). Without that insurance we likely would be bringing him home in a box. For $40-$50 per couple don't leave home without it. We had to use it on the front end when three years ago my husband ended up with open heart surgery the week before we were to come. Trip was covered . No money lost. Damian and Norma from the premier member services could not have helped us more as well as guest services after they were gone for the day!
Hope your friend is ok. We wouldn't ever consider going away without full medical insurance. I'm glad you mentioned the card thing though. We never let our card company know we're going away because assume we'll never need to use it abroad. Never thought about the cost of hospital fees, that would definitely need to go on a card and get fees back from insurance company back home. No way our travel money would cover anything serious like that.
Most cards would have there limit tapped out pretty quick tho. They charge my friend $500 for a Lipitor table at the hospital which is why the bill ran up so fast
We had a similar experience last Dec. I posted on this and TA Cancun forum about a Hospital called AmeriMed not accepting my wifes United HealthCare. Good grief, you would assume with a name like Amerimed they were be a least AWARE of AMerican Health Insurance. Quite a few folks informed me of how "bad" we Americans were to assume anything named "Ameri" is American. SORRY !!!! Mexico is in North America !! So you had Trip Health Insurance , but Amerimed wouldn't take it??? Ain't that a great joke !!!!! I guess you pay it and they reimburse you ??? I think the truth is if you have a serious Medical emergency in Mexico or Jamaica or most foreign countries, you are kind of screwed ., unless you canpay the total yourself
Never fails to amaze me how many folks travel without insurance when it is so cheap to cover yourself and so expensive if you ever need treatment and don't have it. In the UK some travel operators wont even let you board a plane if you don't have medical insurance. You shouldn't assume anything by a name. Especially, when it could be such a costly mistake. I once went to a Kentucky Fried Chicken and the chicken wasn't fried in Kentucky
Squaremouth.com will do a comparison of all the available plans for your trip. At minimum cover yourself for health minimum $25000 and evacuation. After that if you want trip cancelation interruption etc. you can add it. It certainly saved our friends . BTW latest updat is head two blocked arteries. They were able to unblock 1 and will be able to travel home from Florida on Sat. A very lucky man!
We always travel w/medical insurance,,,$90.00 is a spit in the bucket if a problem occurs. Can't imagine the costs if something happens out of the blue..and it usually happens when you least expect it. OUT of my country,,,,Well invested $90.00
