Anonymous - 3-19-2004 at 05:54 PM
Will be retiring within 2 years to a house in Ensenada and wonder if anyone can help regarding medical and auto insurance. Planning on obtaining
policy for catastrophic medical conditions. anyone have info re: good (US) policies for that? Also, once living in Baja, what do you recommend for
car insurance, as the tourist policies will not apply. Any guidance is much appreciated.
Medical ins can be challenging, auto straightforward
the_lochsa - 3-19-2004 at 11:44 PM
Congratulations on your impending retirement!
Medical insurance, especially for those who do not qualify for Medicare because of their age or foreign residence, can be expensive and has a tendency
to disappear (or get tremendously more expensive) if a chronic condition rears its ugly head. If you do qualify for Medicare, perhaps you can keep a
residence in the US and be ready to make the short-trip up to San Diego to use it.
Individual health care policies (as opposed to group policies such as your employer would offer) tend to be fairly restrictive when it comes to
pre-existing conditions. Often you will not be covered for those conditions for well over a year, depending on your particular policy. Also, if
something happens to you or someone else covered under your policy that makes you a worse risk because of the onset of a chronic health condition, you
could be faced with skyrocketing health insurance premiums.
If you still want to look at an individual policy, Fortis is well-known for offering innovative, high quality health insurance plans that have high
deductibles. Work with a local agent or on one of the website that specialize in this such as:
http://www.quotesmith.com
http://www.ehealthinsurance.com
Be sure to comb the terms and conditions of the policy very careful to ensure coverage while in a foreign country.
A final option is purchasing health insurance from the Mexican government. I'm not sure of the regulations associated with this, but I understand
insurance is available in the neighborhood of $200-$300 USD per year once residency has been established for a certain amount of time. The Mexican
agency is called IMSS. Private policies that are just good for coverage in Mexico are also available. Try this resource for more information:
http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/travel/llcm/llcm1002.html
There are plenty of good resources for auto insurance in MX, including the bajanomad site. Try the links below and perform a search in the forum to
see what others have to say.
http://www.bajanomad.com/club/ann_ins.htm
http://www.mexicomike.com
good luck!
Anonymous - 3-24-2004 at 06:21 PM
Thank you much for the info. Xtremely helpful.
Skeet/Loreto - 3-24-2004 at 08:40 PM
For the past 15 years I have had good Service from Lewis&Lewis. cost for me about $157..00 annual.
Skeet/Loreto
"In God I Trust"