# IMSS for foreigners



## Ernesto.Mx (Aug 19, 2021)

Buenas tardes....

Question: I was interested in joining the IMSS for health insurance. Online I am reading one can opt for this public health insurance when one has either a residente temporal or residente permanente. I called LCS and they told me that IMSS is for families and that one needs to have a relative (brother, sister, husband, wife etc) already enrolled before one can opt in. So.....what's true?

Saludos


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

I enrolled in IMSS 10 years ago. At that time, I was on a permanent visa. I'm still a member of IMSS. I have no relatives in Mexico, and none in IMSS.


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## trekmanone (Sep 13, 2020)

Ernesto.Mx said:


> Buenas tardes....
> 
> Question: I was interested in joining the IMSS for health insurance. Online I am reading one can opt for this public health insurance when one has either a residente temporal or residente permanente. I called LCS and they told me that IMSS is for families and that one needs to have a relative (brother, sister, husband, wife etc) already enrolled before one can opt in. So.....what's true?
> 
> Saludos


I live permanently in MX. Typically IMSS is "reserved" for Mexicans and expats/gringos typically use Segura Popular health insurance. MX is in the process of merging the two to create one public healthcare system. S/P is the better of the 2. IMSS, you better bring your bedsheets, water, food, someone who knows Spanish. Most gringos freak out at the condition of IMSS hospitals and the rooms. Not for the faint of heart.
Personally, I pay cash for all my medical needs. Doctors, dental, optical. It is so cheap. I once was stung by a stingray on my foot. The most painful event I've experienced in my life! I was taken to a Red Cross hospital emergency room. Golf cart to hospital, 2 hours later, 2 nurses, 1 doctor, examination, 2 prescriptions and stitches... $250 pesos ($12 USD)! Try that is USA...
Expat private medical insurance is very expensive especially once you get into the mid-60s and 70s. $1,500 USD annually and increases each year once you exceed 60. $1,500 USD in pesos could practically pay for an entire heart transplant in Mexico.
BTW, I looked at the medical degrees on walls of medical professions and at hospitals. Easily half of them were educated in USA.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

trekmanone said:


> I live permanently in MX. Typically IMSS is "reserved" for Mexicans and expats/gringos typically use Segura Popular health insurance. MX is in the process of merging the two to create one public healthcare system. S/P is the better of the 2.


Are you sure you don't have IMSS and Segura Popular reversed. IMSS members mostly are people who get it as a benefit through their employer, plus a few people like me who subscribe by paying the annual fee. I know less about Segura Popular, but my impression was that it is takes everyone without requiring a membership fee and was mostly used by people with not much money.

I also doubt that many "expats/gringos typically use Segura Popular". My impression is that most have either private insurance or pay out of pocket. But I don't know very many immigrants and have not taken a survey.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

Acta


TundraGreen said:


> Are you sure you don't have IMSS and Segura Popular reversed. IMSS members mostly are people who get it as a benefit through their employer, plus a few people like me who subscribe by paying the annual fee. I know less about Segura Popular, but my impression was that it is takes everyone without requiring a membership fee and was mostly used by people with not much money.
> 
> I also doubt that many "expats/gringos typically use Segura Popular". My impression is that most have either private insurance or pay out of pocket. But I don't know very many immigrants and have not taken a survey.


Actually, that's SegurO Popular. I think it has recently been replaced by a program created by AMLO y Compañía, not sure what it's called. Like most of the programs El Señor Presidente has put into place, it has not gotten good reviews.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

You have IMSS and SP reversed. The IMSS is for middleclass people Seguro popular is for the poor and is free. I have been many times to a SP hospital in CHiapas.. People sleep in cardboard outside the hospital at night. You have to bring everything and one person is allowed with the sick person, You can only enter for 8 hours and are not to leave and have to take care of the patient. Last time I took care of a kid at night I had a chiar to sleep on , a little stright plastic chair and I was lucky,The place was over crowded and the kid was on a guerney for 3 days because there was no bed. There was little drug and you had to go to a private lab by ambulance for xrays as their machine was broken down. A woman came with a small kid who probably had a fracture of the skull. THey told her to go and go by ambulance to a xtay.. it was a thursday, she had no money and people passed the hat to pay for the 2 ambulance ride and for the xray.. she had to wait to collect the money , meanwhile the kid was sreaming and throwing up, she cam back and was told that the specialist would not be there until Monday so they passed the hat again to be for the ride back to Ocosingo by colectivo. I was still there with a kid who also had fractured his skull and she never came back.. Seguro Popular offers experiences you do not forget..
IMSS is way more civilized.. I know that for a fact at least in Chiapas.


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## MangoTango (Feb 8, 2020)

After 10 years in the IMSS system I think the only people it may be suitable for are poor pregnant women.
In Morelos, a kind of 'upscale' place (compared to Chiapis), the medical care at IMSS is sub-sub-par.
IMSS emergency room would be my last choice. 
What Citali describes as her SP experiences are what we had at IMSS- except that my wife was not even given a chair, and slept on the floor beside my bed.
We could afford better, but in my own simple way - it was a test of what coverage I actually had.

Looking back to when we were still in the US - the prospect of an IMSS like coverage was one of the things we thought important in moving to Mexico. 
That is just another of the many things we got wrong.

I have never weighed the differences of a private health insurance policy in Mexico (what with all its possible co-pays, exclustions etc). BUT we have have made extensive use of aggressive bargaining at private hospitals / doctor's offices to bring our health care costs down. Even still - we managed to spend about 40K US last year out of pocket. Now that would likely have been substantially more in the US (possibly 400-500K). 

Just don't look upon Mexico as a route for free (or even cheap) quality healthcare.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

MangoTango said:


> Looking back to when we were still in the US - the prospect of an IMSS like coverage was one of the things we thought important in moving to Mexico.
> That is just another of the many things we got wrong.
> 
> I have never weighed the differences of a private health insurance policy in Mexico (what with all its possible co-pays, exclustions etc). BUT we have have made extensive use of aggressive bargaining at private hospitals / doctor's offices to bring our health care costs down. Even still - we managed to spend about 40K US last year out of pocket. Now that would likely have been substantially more in the US (possibly 400-500K).
> ...


[cut]

I'm curious as to why you would have imagined that quality healthcare in Mexico would be free or cheap? Since moving to Mexico, I have been paying my medical expenses on my own, without using IMSS or having private health insurance. At least in Mexico City, I have found the care I have received to be of excellent quality and quite affordable - please keep in mind that I live on a very modest retirement income.


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## MangoTango (Feb 8, 2020)

Isla Verde said:


> I wonder what else you got wrong . . .
> 
> I'm curious as to why you would have imagined that quality healthcare in Mexico would be free or cheap? Since moving to Mexico, I have been paying my medical expenses on my own, without using IMSS or having private health insurance. At least in Mexico City, I have found the care I have received to be of excellent quality and quite affordable - please keep in mind that I live on a very modest retirement income.


What else did I (we) get wrong ? Well for starters rather than simply retiring to Mexico, my wife wanted to continue working (remotely for a European company) and travel to the point that she accumulated several million frequent flyer miles. I stopped working at around 55 and she continued until perhaps 65. We should have smelled the roses while we had the chance. I say that because the location we chose to settle into in Mexico was based partly on the accessibility of the airport in Mexico City. We should have simply retired to a beach-side condo and enjoyed life.

[cut]

Regarding medical coverage in Mexico - I was primarily attempting to convey that someone who has not yet relocated to Mexico should not, in any way, view IMSS as a healthcare parachute.

Saludos


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## Maxkjo (Sep 6, 2021)

I have IMSS and it is possible to be on IMSS with a residence visa or INE and one can be single under modalidad 33 for families. Here in rural Mexico, I've been happy with IMSS so far, certainly, it is not sub-par by any means. We even have a brand new specialty hospital in-town.


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## Maxkjo (Sep 6, 2021)

Seguro Popular has not existed since January 1, 2020, some time ago. It was replaced by INSABI. It is for "everyone else" and is even more underfunded than IMSS. IMSS is basically the insurance for Mexicans who have regular, salaried jobs, it comes "free" with employment.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

Maxkjo said:


> Seguro Popular has not existed since January 1, 2020, some time ago. It was replaced by INSABI. It is for "everyone else" and is even more underfunded than IMSS. IMSS is basically the insurance for Mexicans who have regular, salaried jobs, it comes "free" with employment.


Thanks for the update on healthcare in Mexico. INSABI should be called "INSALUBRE", ¿verdad? Yet another triumph of the Cuarta Transformación. 😉


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## Sleepy1 (Jun 7, 2021)

My IMSS experience is zero, but from what I've been told and have heard, IMSS quality varies greatly from place to place, and even hospital to hospital within the same city. A doctor-friend (CDMX) had his father hospitalized a while back at an IMSS hospital and he was impressed, saying that it was on a par with private hospitals. Perhaps he just knows the better hospitals through his work. But I've also heard complaints from others that IMSS hospitals run out of medication regularly, and lack many basic facilities. As for healthcare being cheap in Mexico, I think Americans compare it to the hair-raising costs back home, so it's definitely cheaper, but that doesn't make it cheap (or free). I think it's expensive, especially specialist fees, but I'm from Australia (evil socialist country) that has a nationalised health system. The only thing I've found to be cheap here is dental care, which still surprises me. As for private health insurance, the way it works here is simply idiotic.


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