Health care in Paraguay

*Never had any and not planning on getting some soon. In my opinion it's just one more legal scam here in PY, except for the Mennonites Med. Insurance, but then you must almost be one of them to qualify for it or at least live among them...

A fellow country man of me had to make use of his Med. insurance last year for his wife. He had\has PROMED. Its about middle class Med. Insurance I would say. After 6 days in the Hospital he still had to pay more than G2.500.000. He basically got the room for free for his Medical Insurance 
Know a German that has THE BEST medical plan with one of THE BEST private hospitals here called Centro Medico Bautista. Few months ago he was diagnosed was cancer close to his liver, only to discover that his insurance doesn't cover any-kind of cancer-treatment.Christian Hospital or not, business FIRST I guess...

Other medical insurances here are Sanatorio Adventista (another Christian Hospital) OAMI and Medica S.A. the last 2 being only med. insurance.
Then there's still Santa Clara Hospital, San Roque Hospital, Sanatorio Americana and Hospital Migone, all located in Asuncion.

All of the mentioned Hospitals have quite good standards, Migone being the best in most peoples opinions.It's only the med. insurance that sucks (in my opinion)

*About dental care I can only say that the Dentist we use charges us 10$ for a filling and about 70$ for a root-treatment, and we're satisfied with the standard of work.

*Some addresses of pharmacies around Paraguay I need not give because if there's one thing you find on almost every street corner in Py it's pharmacies   (wonder why... )

*As for Eye care clinic's I don't know what to say. Neighbour of us is a Ophthalmologist, wife needed her first reading glasses last year and we made it through him.Nothing to complain about except that it costed G450.000.   Won't recommend him though, its like literally going back in time 50 years upon entering his shop, but his house is a little palace and new.


Ok, that's my 2 cents about Health Care, but now I'm gonna use this topic to write something I hope will only help someday if the need should ever arise.


About a year and a half ago I lived through a experience that I think few people who'll be reading this will ever go through, and I most definitely do not wish anyone to go through such.
Sufficient to say, if anyone of you or close to you should ever be in any-kind of accident, THE MOMENT YOU\HE\SHE is transportable YOU GET YOUR "behind" to EMERGENCIAS MEDICAS!! as soon as possible! I cannot stress how IMPORTANT it is that you get there as a EMERGENCY CASE.If not they do not treat you as such and you may die waiting for attention...They are open 24h\365 days of the year.
It may be public, the blood on the curtains between bed's in the emergency room maybe from 5 years ago, you may even see a dog late at night taking a stroll through the hospital, BUT ITS THE ONLY PLACE IN PY THAT'S ABLE TO GIVE YOU A THOROUGH CHECK-UP and WITH THE BEST TRAUMA Doctor's at hand.

I cannot stress HOW IMPORTANT it is.Just believe me.

Ok, and that was enough ranting from me again for 1 day...
CU.

Hello Nic'oPY,

Thanks a lot for your contribution

Regards

Emergencias Medicas is also a good place to go for emergency care such as heart attacks/strokes based on my family's experience.  Father in law suffered a debilitating stroke and ambulance took him there.  Even though everything has to be paid "up front" they had the right docs, equipment and drugs available and while the care wasn't pretty, it was effective. So I second Nico's advice of going there first if your really, really hurting.

Also keep in mind that most ambulances in PY are very basic.  they are a box with a shelf and an attendant with basic first aid supplies.  Maybe if lucky they'll even have some oxygen.  This doesnt' apply to the nicely furnished private ambulances associated with private clinics, but your not going to get them if you rely on emergency medical transport.  The attendants in your basic ambulances will have nice white coats on though...

As for insurance providers in PY, one that has been noted before on this forum is "Assi-Med" which a couple of expats we know have used or are using in PY.  Their coverage is mostly provided by docs and clinics in "their" network. 

Based on the experiences of the two expats I know who have used them, you would have a 50% chance of being really happy or really unhappy with them though.  The main problem I heard about was when Assi-Med decided to change their mind on whether a pending heart surgery was covered or not.  The fact their own policy stated it should be didn't matter, they just decided not to cover it!  This kind of thing is probably a risk you take with any local policy provider though.  So let the "buyer beware"!

One note for folks who are possibly retired US military.  TRICARE actually has a list of providers in PY (all in Asuncion) that accept TRICARE insurance.  And TRICARE will accept claims for any emergency medical care from throughout PY, although you of course have to pay up front first.

Just to put the record straight.

I've written with majbjb privately and he acknowledged that he got a bit confused with the "complicated trail travelled by my father-in-law father during his last year." Guess his wife is still trying to explain it all to him.

Point: At the Emergency Hospital (Emergencias Medicas) you do not have to pay ANYTHING. You will only be asked -and given a Doc. prescription- for med's that of which they do not have enough in stock at the particular moment. And plz, don't go to the pharmacy's right over the street, listen to the sales people camping in the entrance that's from pharmacy's further away.It could save you a lot of money.

Like majbjb said :" ...had the right docs, equipment and drugs available and while the care wasn't pretty, it was effective."

They do actually get it right most times and save a lot of peoples lives. I have seen personally poor AND rich take their loved one's there in times of need.

Ok I'm not an expert on this, but I just would like to say that if you're not in an emergency and close to the Argentinian border, got to a public clinic in Argentina they are free and of way better quality than the ones in Paraguay ( a lot of Parguayans go to Clorinda for example).

I had 2 little issues when I was in Paraguay, one of them was a little problem with my eye. I had the same problem when I was in Colombia, I went to a oftomolagist in the private hospital on Artigas ( don't rememeber the name but I think it's the same company as Santa Lucia, the doctor looked 10 seconds in both of my eyes and concluded it was infected and subscribed me some eyedrops. It was a complete joke in comparising to the exam they did in Colombia (where I paid about the same).

Again this is just my personal opinion, I think the basic (private) healthcare is alright in Paraguay, but I have a the feeling that a lot of the doctors with specializations don't have the right papers or experience and care more for their bank accounts than their patients. I mean there must be a reasons why Lugo goes to a hospital in Sao Paulo to threat his cancer.


About the medical insrances, if you are an expat a lot of insurance companies have special expat/travellers health  insurance plans with worldwide coverage . allianzworldwidecare.com/ for example.

Yud wrote:

Hello everyone,

One among the various issue that many expatriates usually raise is Health Care. So, I think it would be very interesting and helpful to start a topic about Health.

   > So, can you please list some of the private clinics & public hospitals in Paraguay?

   > What about dental care? May be some tips about the costs?

   > Some addresses of Eye care clinic, opticians will also be welcomed!

   > Some addresses of pharmacies around Paraguay will also be useful.

Do not hesitate, to add more related items to the list.

Thanks in advance for your participation!
______________________________________________
Expat.com Team

So this is my very first post on here.  I can answer your question about the dentist.  My wife is a dentist here.  For just a regular cleaning she charges 120,000 guaranies which is $30.  It is even less if your teeth aren't horrible
For a porcelan bridge 600,000
An extraction 70,000
30,000 per x-ray
Of course there is more but this should give you some ideas.

I too wonder about insurance.  I have been here for a year and a half and haven't had any insurance.  It scares me to think what would happen if something bad happened and I had to go to the hospital.  And no just because my wife is a dentist doesn't mean we are rich (this isn't the states). She doesn't have her own place she rents a place and has only been working 2 days a week with hardly any clients.  And I don't work here.  So money is a bit tight at the moment.  If someone could let me know if you have insurance and how much it costs I would appreciate it.

@redwingpy, firstly hello.

Secondly, if possible go and make yourself and wife members of Coop. Lambare. They have some sort of deal with Promed.(Which I know isn't the best medical Insurance)But the money I've saved because of that "deal" is probably a few million  by now.

My son was born here in Paraguay. I went to La Cruz Roja for all of my pre-natal care, and he was born there as well. It is a public hospital, and each appointment cost me 5.000 (a dollar 25). If you need to do lab work or ultrasounds or get a prescription, you pay all of that out of your pocket. The wait for attention was long, there were some super frustrating situations at times, but overall, the care was good and doctors very knowledgeable. My son had complications upon being born and spent 5 days in an incubator... I think they charged us about 12.50 a day for its use. However, the biggest problem we faced is that doctors are so used to dealing with people with little eduacation that it was EXTREMELY difficult to get to talk to a doctor there, as well as to be updated on how he was doing. Upon being released we didn't get any of his lab results or anything to keep, which is really unfortunate as now we are taking him to another hospital closer to our home. They simply wrote up a little summary in his birth booklet...

Well, baby had a cough and we took him to be seen at Hospital Regional de Luque, another public hospital. Again, lots of waiting, we were in urgent care for hours, but once the doctor saw him he sent us for an x-ray, doing us the favor of marking it urgent so it was done immediately, then telling us to just knock on the door when we got back. We did that, he told us it was bronquiolitis and admitted the baby to the hospital. We were there for 7 days, all of which was free. Almost all of his medications were also free from the pharmacy there as well, even the ones we took home with us. So, excellent care there. The doctors were educated and we got better updates and better access to doctors and nurses when we had questions.

However, in pediatrics there is only a bed for the patient. My husband brought me a mattress which I slept on (though technically it isn't allowed, he was able to get permission, and I saw several others with mattresses also). Mothers or relatives generally serve as nurses, as nursing staff is short. They learn how to do a lot of the treatments and to keep a watch on the patient to let hospital staff know if there is any change. Definitely different from the US, but, what do you expect for free? And I honestly don't have much hope that what you get with insurance is that much better. I was satisfied as, as I mentioned, the actual health care my son received was excellent, and free. I for one do not plan on getting insurance, I just don't see the point... It seems like a scam to me... We're just so used to the need for it in the US, as we don't have a national health care system. It's pretty sad to me that a 3rd world country's system is better than ours. Though, to be fair, our hospitals are definitely more... confidence inspiring. There is a lack of a lot of really basic medical tools here. And cleanliness and comfort (or rather, the lack thereof) is another aspect that's quite the culture shock...

melusine84
oh man, reading that brought back some memories of a personal experience I lived through about 1 1\2 years ago that I 100% hope never to live through again...

I do not think its possible to explain to anyone that has never gone through such it thing how it felt\was.
But like you say, it works, somehow, but it works.
Hope your son is in good health by now and all else is only going in the right direction.

Glad to see you back on the Forum too!

melusine84

Welcome back "on forum" and congratulations on having made the move successfully and the birth of your son!  Glad to hear your doing well and that things worked out for you all with your health care experiences. 

After my families experiences with a debilitating stroke and the resulting long term care of nearly a year, I can second your opinion that the overall care in hospitals, while "different" than the US, does seem pretty competent.  By different, we found out like you did that many of the nursing and patient care functions fall on the family.  As for the professional care, drugs and technical labs or tests; these were surprisingly cheap by any standards. So in the long run, it probably would be OK to go without insurance for emergency or normal re-occurring care, if one were somewhat healthy and had access to a public hospital close by. 

But one thing we found that insurance came in pretty valuable for was "long term acute care" as it would be called in the US.  Care that occurred outside of a hospital where a doctor, physical therapist, nurse or other professional had to be engaged for a long period of time on a reoccurring basis.  Since there doesn't seem to be any long term care facilities or rest homes, all this kind of thing takes place at home.  And as we found out, even though comparatively cheap, the frequent home visits by these professional care givers can become very costly when added up over the long haul.  Insurance, as we discovered, does normally cover such care and in our case proved to be a really good value and saved many, many GS & $$.  So, that is one thing to keep in mind.

Cheers and good luck!

Ok I'm not an expert on this, but I just would like to say that if you're not in an emergency and close to the Argentinian border, got to a public clinic in Argentina they are free and of way better quality than the ones in Paraguay ( a lot of Parguayans go to Clorinda for example).

I had 2 little issues when I was in Paraguay, one of them was a little problem with my eye. I had the same problem when I was in Colombia, I went to a oftomolagist in the private hospital on Artigas ( don't rememeber the name but I think it's the same company as Santa Lucia,...................>






Hi I just wanted to clarify something  about this  comment made by pman.   Many people get confused with Paraguay and Ueuguay, two different countries, that don't share  a border.
Artigas is in URUGUAY not in Paraguay. I'm sorry your experience with this doctor wasn't what  you needed. I hope the rest of your coment is accurate though. Faby68

Hi faby68,

Please note that this topic is very old 
However, i thank you for your contribution.

Priscilla
Expat.com team

Hello 
What about health insurance? Some details about price and option for full healtcare for foreingers?
thanks

Health insurance is still something a little novel in Paraguay.   There are many options via private health insurers though, some better than others, as well as the national health insurance IPS.   IPS is by far the cheapest but also the most basic.   If you go to one of their many clinics you may get lucky enough to actually see a doctor but the doctor will usually not have any drugs, bandages or anything but advice to offer you.   They do operate the one and only trauma center/emergency hospital in Paraguay though. 

One of the top end private insurers is Assimed.   An example of coverage they provide is the one we pay for.  It costs around $220 US a month for our family of 3.  No pre-existing condition exclusions and you can see doctors for free at any of their own clinics.   Some dental coverage is provided also.   Tests and procedures are nominally free but no drug coverage exists.   In fact drug coverage is very rare with insurance's as drug costs are fairly low here.  Paraguay does have a robust little pharmaceutical industry of it's own which helps in this regards.   The Assismed website is    http://www.asismed.com.py