As a foreigner in Ecuador, there are a few things you should take into account before choosing your health insurance. It is important that you consider your pre-existing conditions, monthly payments, the amount of the annual deductible, the benefits that your health insurance offers you, and the importance of having a broker in Ecuador.
The first thing you should consider before choosing health insurance in Ecuador is your pre-existing medical conditions. We recommend making a list of these so that you do not exclude any diagnosis that could be important. Declaring a pre-existing medical condition ensures that your first 12 to 24 months of health insurance will cover these diagnoses. If these conditions are not declared at the beginning of your contract and the company obtains this information from your treating physician, these pre-existing medical conditions will not be permanently covered.
Private insurance in Ecuador must guarantee appropriate coverage for each of your diagnoses, and should provide you with care through the best clinics in the country. This is why it is important that you check the network that the insurance company has throughout the country. When medical care is performed within the network, care is covered at 90% of the value presented to the company, whereas outside of the network care is covered at 80%. Your services within the network maintain preferential prices, such as medical consultations for a total of $6, physiotherapy from $5, and pre-authorization of exams and surgeries. This is among other benefits such as annual Pap tests, Mammograms, and Prostate-Specific Antigen tests (PSA). In Ecuador, in order to obtain reimbursement for medical expenses you must present certain documents verifying the price of medicine, medical care, or exam costs, among other things. Depending on the plan that you choose your deductible can range from $100 to $5000.
In Ecuador you can find private health insurance for as low as $39.20 per month and have the option of combining it with an insurance policy to obtain the highest coverage. For example, this could mean choosing health insurance with comfortable monthly installments and an annual deductible of $5,000. Combined with an insurance policy that covers this value, you would have a policy that covers up to $500,000 with a very affordable monthly payment. In addition, a basic plan can be combined with your IESS public insurance, which is among the options that you can choose in Ecuador to have a health plan, and which we will talk about in a future article.
In Ecuador, the best option for getting health insurance is through an insurance broker that has a license authorized by the Superintendency of Securities and Insurance. Additionally, they should be able to explain options clearly in your preferred language and present you with at least 3 quotes from different insurers so that you can make the best decision for yourself.
These are some of the most important recommendations we have when buying health insurance in Ecuador. Remember that you have multiple options in the Ecuadorian insurance market that will adapt to meet your needs and desires.