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I will not take issue with the statements made in the above titled article but I do have this to relate:
My wife and I moved to Costa Rica in December 2007 and our documents were provided to the Migracion offe=ices as required. Due to the indifference and ineptitude of our first attorney our file was not completed until August 2008.
My wife was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cance in January 2009 and we still had not been approved by Migracion. Thanks to the help of some of the employees at Migracion we were able to get my wife approved by April.
Dealiung with the employees at CAJA up to the local office manager for another month, we found that CAJA employees would not take the responsibility of accepting her into CAJA even though she had proper documentation. We found it necessary to go to the primary CAJA office in San Jose to get her approved for CAJA that day and paid the necessary fee of 13,125 colones.
It took two weeks to get her a bed in Hospital San Juan de Dios where she had surgery in mid June. She is now diagnosed as cancer free but was required to go through 33 sessions of radiation therapy as a precaution. The therapy started in Feruary 2010 and was completed ealy this month.:D
The diagnosis was serious, the delays were long. From diagnosis to completion of her treatment took a 13 1/2 months. If she had had her cedula she would have had the surgery in two weeks and the delay for the follow-up treatment is long but the number of cancer patients is large and her condition was not as critical as other patients. She could have completed the process 6 months earlier if Migracion was organized to function properly.:roll:
There ARE downsides to the public healthcare system in Costa Rica. San Juan de Dios was going through a bacterial crisis at the time necessitating bottled water, pillows and other comforts are not offered, no air conditioning necessitated a personal fan, hospital food is bland and monotonous.:(
The point I make is that THE SYSTEN WORKS. Once all the issues were out of the way the surgery was rapid and follow-up treatment was adequate.
I am no [b]”Gringo Rico”[/b] and could not have afforded to pay for this medical care on Medicade in the States. Medicade pays 80% and our share would have amounted to over $20,000. Private insurance is a rip-off no matter where you are It is expensive beyond reason as the insurance companies become wealthy, there are limits pre-existing conditions and there are annual limits on individual and family care.
I am glad it worked for your wife.
My husband is having surgery this coming week at Hospital Catolica, after checking around at different facilities and we are praying for a good outcome.
We have been told that for breast cancer, the treatment is quick in contrast to other cancers. And if my husband waited, it could be next year, so we will pay out of pocket and go ahead at this lovely hospital. We also have been told we need to stay around ‘the area’ for a few more days before traveling back to Guanacaste so have reserved rooms at the hotel that is a former convent attached to the hospital. It is like a [i]boutique hotel[/i] and includes all meals for both of us.
Hopefully the medical services match the facilities.
For those of you who feel that you shouldn’t pay CAJA, please think again, and hope you never have to use it for a serious medical condition.[quote=”costaricafinca”]surgery this coming week at Hospital Catolica, after checking around at different facilities.[/quote]
Good luck on the surgery and be prepared for the little items that may not be provided by state run hospitals such as a fan, pillow, a blanket, a cup, slippers, towel, soap, etc.
We found the staff at San Juan de Dios to be very caring.
and don’t forget toilet paper. a friend of mine was in the hospital at San Ramon and he had to supply his own. talk about no-frills medicine!!!
I have never heard of Medicaide that only pays 80%. It is Medicare that only pays 80% in the states. If someone qualifies for Medicaide in the US due to low income and low assets, they cover all medical expenses. My daughter age 27 recently had treatment for Grave’s disease including a very expensive radioactive iodine thyroid ablation. Her daughter, my grandaughter, age 9 was diagnosed with juvenile diabetis at the same time, spent 5 days in All Children’s Hospital in ST Petersburg, Florida and just recently got a $6000 insulin pump. They paid nothing for any of this and the government is picking up the tab for all of their medications, insulin and insulin pump supplies. I am glad this was available because all of these procedures, treatments and medications are life-saving. They would both be dead by now without them. My point is that medical care is available for the rich and the poor but a person in the middle class could be finacially devastated by either of these events whether thay had insurance or not. Lets hope the US fixes this for it’s own citizens. If US citizens move to Costa Rica only to receive adequate and affordable medical care, the CAJA system may soon become overwhelmed. I have applied for residency here and have been working to get this for 2 years. If my application is approved, I will happily join the CAJA system and hope that I won’t have to use it. But it will bring peace of mind that I have health care coverage whether I am in the states or in Costa Rica. Also, I understand that if I qualify for the CAJA system, that my husband will be able to be covered also. My husband did not apply for residency when I did because he is having trouble obtaining a document pertaining to a name change in Hawaii and we live in Florida.
You husband will only be covered if he is a [i]legal resident[/i], as far as I understand, whether or not you are covered by CAJA. I would also expect that he will need to apply under the new requirements when & if he gets his paperwork sorted out, which will require the guaranteed pension/SS of $1000 per month or the $150,000 ‘lump sum’. An expensive way to get residency for you both.
.sdrawkcab yltcaxe ti evah uoy tub ,nhoJ ,yrroS
MediCARE (Title XVIII to the Social Security Act) is the health insurance program for those over 65, those with end-stage renal disease, and maybe a few other chronic conditions. It is not means-tested. If you are 65 or older or have a covered condition and qualify for Social Security, you are eligible for MediCARE. MediCARE is totally funded by employer and employee taxes funneled through the federal government which administers it.
MediCAID (Title XIX), on the other hand, is funded from the general funds of the federal and state governments. Eligibility for MediCAID is means-tested. That is, your family income and assets must be below a certain level in order to qualify. What’s more, an applicant must also have a qualifying condition (a “deprivation”) such as having an elderly, disabled, absent, imprisoned, or unemployed parent. It’s not enough just to be poor.
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) took over the states’ welfare responsibilities for the disabled, blind and elderly poor in the mid-1970s. It is entirely federally funded. The disabled must meet the same disability criteria as they would for Social Security Disability Insurance. SSI, however, is for people who do not have the necessary employment history to qualify for Disability Insurance under Social Security. Most (maybe all) states cover SSI recipients with their MediCAID programs.
The State Children’s Health Insurance Program, a federal initiative, has opened up MediCAID to many children, whose families would not qualify under the traditional income and deprivation guidelines.
When folks enter nursing homes long-term, many of them have the resources to pay their expenses — for a while. After they have “spent down” those resources, they are generally eligible to be enrolled in MediCAID. Now they’re poor and, by virtue of qualifying for nursing home admission, they’re disabled. It is a little known fact that the greatest part of MediCAID expenditures go to people in this situation.
The other program out there is the Children’s Special Health Care Services (Title V) program. In general, CHSCS provides specialty medical care to severely physically disabled children under 21 years of age. The states have considerable latitude in structuring their administration of this program. In Michigan, for example, the program covers the needs of hemophiliacs and those with cystic fibrosis beyond the age of 21. What’s more, traditionally families who were not poor could buy into the program to obtain services not otherwise available to their disabled children.
This last post is a pretty good rundown of the difference between Medicare and Medicaid. I think there are some differences in between states. We live in Florida and people who are poor and who have assets below $2000 do not have to have a qualifying condition to qualify for Medicaid although I think adults only qualify if they have at least one dependent.
As far as my husband goes, he does not need to qualify for residency with another $1000 per month in income because I already make more than that in Social Security income. Since my residency application already contains our marriage license, he will automatically income qualify if my application is accepted.
Maybe someone can comment on this: I remember from an earlier thread that someone had joined CAJA before they received their actual residency. I can’t remember now if this was AFTER they had their residency “number” (that denotes one is actually “in” the pipeline for approval) or not. Can someone comment on this? THX.
[b]rosiemaji[/b] I stand corrected!
It has indeed been reported that some people have managed to obtain CAJA before being issued a [i]cedula,[/i] solely on their folio number, but it is not usually the case, and shouldn’t be counted on.[quote=”sueandchris”]Maybe someone can comment on this: I remember from an earlier thread that someone had joined CAJA before they received their actual residency. I can’t remember now if this was AFTER they had their residency “number” (that denotes one is actually “in” the pipeline for approval) or not. Can someone comment on this? THX.[/quote]
My wife had the approval paperwork in hand but there is a three month wait to get the physical cedula card. The local CAJA office manager would not take the responsibility of approving her and we had to go to the main office in San Jose to get her into the system.
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