The First Three Things to Do for Your Health After Moving to Ecuador

A general practitioner and emergency room physician in Manta explains what newcomers to Ecuador should do for their health before the boxes are even unpacked.

Dr. Bill Bake has spent eight years as a general practitioner and currently works at Centro médico (SIME) in Manta, where he also sees patients in the emergency room. He grew up in Manabí and has treated expats as well as Ecuadorians, which gives him a practical view of what goes right and wrong when someone new to the country needs medical care.

His advice is not theoretical. It comes from watching patients arrive confused about their coverage, missing their own medical history, or caught off guard by illnesses they had never heard of back home.

Bring your records, not just a summary

The most common mistake Dr. Bake sees is patients who show up with a verbal history instead of paperwork. "Sometimes they don't bring us the clinical history. They just say, 'I have high blood pressure and I take this medication,' and no more," he said. "We sometimes we need more. We need more from the last, last studies, the last labs."

Without recent lab results or a written record, a doctor in Ecuador is starting from zero. Dr. Bake's recommendation is direct: "Bring the record, bring the medication, go to a general practitioner first to have a general medical check to see how you arrive." He compares it to starting a new job — you check in, establish a baseline, and figure out where things stand before anything urgent happens.

Know your insurance before you need it

Dr. Bake described a case that illustrates why this matters. A patient arrived by ambulance after a car accident, insisting his coverage would handle everything. It turned out the clinic had no relationship with his insurer. After reviewing the prices, he went to a public hospital instead, and Dr. Bake never learned what happened to him.

Contrast that with patients who had already done their homework. "They knew that they have insurance. And in this case we have a collaboration with insurance and we make all the process," he said. Those patients, he added, were initially nervous about being taken advantage of as foreigners, but came away reassured — one group invited him to dinner afterward to thank the team.

His point: don't assume a policy that worked at home will be recognized by a specific clinic in Ecuador. Confirm which facilities are included, what the waiting periods are, and what happens if you need a specialist your insurer doesn't cover locally.

Have a written plan for emergencies

Dr. Bake was blunt about timing: "Don't wait to the emergency appear. Make the research with time earlier." That means knowing, before anything happens, which clinic to go to, whether it accepts your insurance, and which specialists are available there. At SIME, he said, patients can often get a specialist appointment within one to two days through the center's scheduling app, and in urgent cases a general practitioner can see them first while a specialist slot opens up.

He also noted a practical gap for English speakers. "Prepare yourself for talking on Spanish because it's not always be available in English," he said, adding that English is becoming more common professionally in Manta but is not yet standard everywhere.

Ask about diseases you've never had to think about

Beyond paperwork and insurance, Dr. Bake flagged a category of risk that catches newcomers off guard: regional illnesses. "Many people don't know about dengue any anywhere in their life," he said. "So it's good to explain about dengue, the influenza, another tropical disease that are more common here." His advice is to ask directly, at that first general checkup, which conditions are common given the local climate, and to get any available vaccinations as a preventive step.

How Ecuador compares

Dr. Bake has personal experience with healthcare in El Salvador, Argentina and Russia, though not in Panama, Mexico or Costa Rica. He said the quality of private care in Ecuador is comparable to what he experienced in those countries. Larger cities like Quito, he noted, have more specialized resources than Manta, though most common conditions can still be handled locally in Manabí. On cost, he said prices in Ecuador are lower than in the countries he has personal experience with — low enough that some expats travel to Ecuador specifically for surgery, and some Ecuadorians living abroad return home for treatment because of the price difference.

What this means for you

If Ecuador is still on your list alongside other countries, Dr. Bake's advice gives you a concrete starting checklist rather than a general impression. Before you move, gather your full medical records and a current medication list — not a summary you plan to recite from memory. Once you arrive, schedule a general checkup soon, even if you feel fine, so a local doctor has a baseline.

Separately, confirm in writing which clinics your insurance actually covers, and identify where you would go in an emergency before you need to find out the hard way. Ask your first doctor what regional illnesses, including dengue, are common where you're settling, and get any recommended vaccinations early. And plan for the possibility that care outside major clinics may be in Spanish, so arrange a translator or build your Spanish before it matters.

This article is based on an interview conducted by HiExpat on 2026-10-02. Rules and prices change; confirm with the relevant authority before acting.

Photo: Vlada Karpovich / Pexels