Morning Thoughts--- IMSS vs Seguro Popular

I don't know how many readers are interested in the health care systems here but I want to add this last post about it and then no more, unless I have to use it. This last week I bit the bullet and renewed my IMSS for this coming year. It cost me over six thousand pesos, including the fee of the woman who processed it for me. I could have signed up for Securo Popular for free and it would have been active for three years instead of one year. So why did I change my mind about SP and go again with IMSS?

I thought long and hard about it. I have Medicare in the States but I don't pay part B. If I ever were to start paying part B, I would have to pay 10% more for each year that I didn't pay for it. Plus I would need a supplemental plan. Plus I would need to get to the States in order to use it. They do not pay down in Mexico. It would cost me a lot of money to use this system. So I deleted it from my list.

I have friends here who do pay for Medicare and they go up every year for check ups, etc. And then many friends have private health insurance and a few of them pay down here. There is one, Boomers in Paradise, that is fairly inexpensive compared to the others. My friend uses it. She pays 1300 dollars a year for it with a 3500 dollar deductible.  In my experience 3500 dollars would more than cover any operations I have had down here.

Some people prefer to just pay out of pocket, which is what I have been doing but I like having a back up plan in case I have a MAJOR health problem that I couldn't pay for so that is why I have IMSS. I was on the point of giving it up and getting SP. You can't have both. But I decided to ask around. I asked a man who has lived here thirty years. He said, "Don't give up your IMSS. Seguro Popular is overcrowded and you will not get good service. They are supported by the oil companies here and the prices are down, which means there isn't enough money to pay for much here now." 

Then I went directly to the Red Cross center where they keep the ambulances. I asked which system would get me to the hospital first and give me the best service. They said "IMSS". So, after talking with a few more people, and many of them were as confused as I was about the two systems, I finally went once again with IMSS. If I had let it go, it would have been extremely difficult for me to sign up again since I am seventy years old now.  For awhile there, IMSS was kicking people off for no reason, even if they had paid into the system for many years. This was a major reason I was not going to renew it but I was told that they are no longer doing that.

Maybe it is six of one and half a dozen of another. There isn't much solid information out about either of these systems. Also there is one more system. You can go directly to the Hospital Civil and they will take you, without any insurance....  I can't shed any more light on the subject than this. I know no more.  It is a crap shoot....  But as I wrote in an earlier post, I have been to the IMSS hospital. It was horrendous. If the Seguro Popular hospital is worse, I would not want to even walk into it. Also, IMSS pays for more things than SP.

I have been living here about nine years now and the two main reasons that people tell me for leaving here are HEALTH CARE and FAMILY.....

If any of you have experiences with these systems, please post on my blog comments. It is too late for me to change my mind but it might help others.