Sunday, February 1, 2015

IMSS vs Seguro Popular


The more information I gather, the more confused I become about these two healthcare systems. I was ready to drop IMSS and go to SP when a friend sent me a post on a forum from a doctor. The post said this: Seguro Popular is useless in an emergency. 

I feel like a ping pong ball, bouncing back and forth from one decision to the other. Looks like more research is in store for me. I did find out that in order to get SP you have to have a CURP number. I went to an attorney's office and talked with one of the men there. He said he would help me through the Seguro Popular application. Which means that he would show up very early in the morning and stand in line for me until I arrived and he would help me to know how to answer the questions. They ask them in Spanish and I don't speak enough of it to understand. The charge for this service is 500 pesos. That seems reasonable. And another 200 or 300 pesos to get me the CURP number. I know that is an easy process and I could do it myself.

But back to which system to use? Continue with IMSS and take my chances that I won't get kicked off if I ever try to use it? Or transfer to SP which one doctor in town says is useless in an emergency. Emergencies are all that I am worried about. I can now understand why so many expats decide to go back to the United States or Canada. For their healthcare...... So at the moment I have NO answers. Only questions.

If I go with SP, I will have to make three trips to their hospital in Guadalajara, plus stand in line here. I once talked with a friend who had a shoulder that hadn't healed properly from a break. She spent an entire day at the SP hospital, going from one desk to another, registering and at the end they said it would be four months before she could have surgery.  Not good news. But others have had surgery and liked SP.  And others have liked IMSS.  One thing that seems to be for sure is that if I go to SP, I am going to be spending a lot of time standing in lines, which I hate.  Very confusing.

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