3879 health services in Argentina
Date: Sun, 16 Oct 2005 14:54:03 +0200
From: Andy <andy.ungureanu@T-ONLINE.DE>
Subject: Re: health services in Argentina
Seth asks: "Sergio:
>
> "I would appreciate if you would provide information regarding health
> insurance plans for foreigners living in Argentina. In most of the EU
> countries health services are free for residing non-EU citizens."
For avoidance of doubt, Germany is not one of the "most of the EU"!
Nobody has free health services!
This is specially dangerous for argentinian visitors, because they need
no visa for less than 3 months, and nobody asks for the insurance when
you enter. There is no bilateral treaty between Germany and Argentina
regarding health insurance. They should care for a private insurance.
The services have to be paid and you can get the amount reimbursed from
your insurance.
You need the insurance *before* going to the doctor! There are a lot of
doctors among the tangueros, so you can hope to get help, but if you
need a hospital you have a problem, a few days can cost several thousand
Euros.
Take care!
Andy
Date: Sun, 16 Oct 2005 23:16:19 +0900
From: astrid <astrid@RUBY.PLALA.OR.JP>
Subject: Re: health services in Argentina
This is off topic, but I just want to let you know that the only European
countries I know where health service is more or less free are Great Britain
and Poland. And Sweden maybe?
> Seth asks: "Sergio:
>
> >
> > "I would appreciate if you would provide information regarding health
> > insurance plans for foreigners living in Argentina. In most of the EU
> > countries health services are free for residing non-EU citizens."
>
>
Date: Sun, 16 Oct 2005 17:38:21 -0300
From: Luz-Mary Harris <lmhsausalito@EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject: Health Services in Argentina
My husband and I moved to B.A about 3 years ago from California. Now we spend more than half of the time in BA, the rest in New York.
We have found the health care in BA to be excellent. Like in any place in the world, the best avenue to find a health practitioner is through a friend's recommendations. We were fortunate to be connected with an excellent physician who is affiliated with El Hospital Aleman. Since then we have been getting all of our care at this facility. Everything is under one roof; medical (all specialties), dental, nutrition etc. They provide from the most simple to the most complicated lab or test procedure. In addition to all the outpatient clinics they also have inpatient services. The waiting period to be seem is brief or very reasonable, compared to US.
I went yesterday to their emergency room, due to a twisted ankle, The charge for the visit was $46 pesos. The doctor sent me to have an x ray down the corridor,which was taken within 20 minutes ( $27 pesos). He saw me again and gave me medication until Monday (free samples) and a "control" return visit for Monday which is covered by the initial payment of $46.
You can purchase insurance coverage from this hospital, which should be called medical center, for about $450 pesos a month. I did not inquire about the extent of inpatient coverage, I believe there is no deductible but I am not sure. There are several hospital centers such as this one, as mentioned by Sergio. Hospital Italiano, Espanol, Ingles, etc.
If you go to your private physician's office the fee is $100 pesos which I think is very reasonable. However if you, as a foreigner, go without an introduction, some of the private health care professionals may charge you $260 pesos a visit.
In my opinion, quality of care is comparable to the US if you go to the private medical centers which tend to have more of a estate of the art equipment. I do not know the public sector services.
It is interesting how they deal with medical records here. The patient keeps lab test results, X rays, MRI's images.
Medications are easily available and prices are very reasonable (Zocor 40mg packet of 30 ranges from $75 to $90 pesos). Most of them do not require prescription but beware of very cheap pharmacies some of them sell "truchas"- fake meds.
One of the areas that I believe is superior here in BA is in the "bedside manner department". They treat you very nicely, friendly without being condescending. As a Colombian student at the U of Minnesota I was horrified at the way patients were treated. My friends used to tell me that my experience in Colombia was distorted because I came from a family of medical practitioners. In my training at UCSF Langley Porter I continued to be amazed. I used to describe to my husband, who is from the Midwest, how patients were treated in Colombia. Now that he has experienced medical care practitioners in BA he understand what I was talking about.
