Living in Costa Rica retirement relocation tours.

Experience With Health Care Costs in Costa Rica

If air quality is an issue for you, you will need to look in the areas surrounding San Jose and not too close to the city. It is common to see buses and cars blowing out black smoke…And since I walk almost everywhere I go, I am aware that air quality is probably pretty bad in the heavily traveled areas of the city.

As far as heath care, I recently had a surgery that cost 3700 dollars which included everything. I was investigating in the internet and the same surgery in the US would likely have been around 16,000 dollars not counting hospital care, etc, the surgery that I had was in CIMA which is considered the best ( and most expensive) hospital in the country.

A few years back I was in a hospital for a couple of days, saw two specialists,was treated in the emergency room, took a myriad of tests and a lot of meds…That cost 428 dollars, all of it, and was in Clinica Catholica, which does NOT specialize in English speaking care as do CIMA and Clinica Biblica.

I could not be insured in the US as I have a condition that can affect any part of my body so nothing would ever be covered. It would all conveniently fall under “pre-existing condition”. And the coverage would be too expensive anyway.

Health Care costs a fraction here of what it costs in the US. Meds cost a fraction here as well. And I believe that as long as there is a public health care system that things will stay that way. I personally don’t even have insurance as there is no reason to. I pay as I go for all health care and thus far , after 8 years here, I would say that all my health care costs have not added up to what my friends pay in the US for their co-pay on their insurance paid costs.

Also very few meds are controlled substances here so if you take a medication regularly you seldom need to pay a doctor visit to get a prescription renewed. I have been taking arthritis meds for about 15 years and just not having to pay a doctor visit everytime I bought the meds has saved me a fortune in health care.

I think that rough estimates suggest that health care costs between 25 and 35 per cent here of what the same would cost in the US.

ALthough I think it is really important to note that moving to a new country and a new culture can be VERY stressful. SO you must add that stress into the equation and see how you come out. People don’t always realize what a challenge it is to live in a country where everything is different than what you have known all your life. It takes most people several years to actually adjust to such a change and the “tropical dream” thing is generally not very realistic. There is no utopia, here or there….

Although for me, I really like Costa Rica and I like living here, but the adjustment was NOT easy at all. It took several years for me to get used to things being so different from everything I knew.