Retirement visa insurance international insurer recommendations

@expat42451

FWIW just did the Cigna  exercise online and their insurance ranges from $870 US  to $1558 US  PER MONTH for coverage.  Cant afford that.

@expat42451

Thank for your response.  I like you maintain a healthy active lifestyle so I prefer to pay out of pocket as the need arises.  So I am not looking for a policy that has benefits.  I will be filing my pensionado visa application early next week.  I purchased a travel insurance medical policy for 1 year for $120 USD from Starr Insurance out of the US and will submit that with my application.  It covers medical emergencies up to $50K and repatriation for $100K.  Just finalizing translations of the apostilles.  Wish me luck!

$120. for a 1 year policy that is acceptable to Immigration and meets their requirements, jump on that.

I recall 7 years ago I too when originally applying for my COL pension visa paid something like 3.000.000 pesos or roughly, at the current exchange rate at the time, a $1,000. USD for the year.

When that 1 year policy expired, actually before it expired, I have been on EPS-SURA and pay right at 400 mil a month or about $100. USD per month and never use it rather pay out of pocket for things that arise , and they do.

Godspeed!

Read my response on the other fellows thread.

Note that getting a " policy" to meet the cancillerías visa requirements is one thing , but getting a reliable health care policy is a totally different kettle of fish  and a policy for one objective wont necessarily suffice for the other.

Also  note that by the 2022 Visa reform, pensionada visa holders are not qualified to enrol in the  EPS system.However, if you have an active cedula, I am 90 % sure any EPS provider will enrol you, because cedulas only mention "C","M" or "R" type and dont get into the visa sub categories,and most providers dont know the rules.

Also  by law  you have to be enrolled in EPS to be eligible to be enrolled in a medicina prepagada program.

But once again many providers of Medicina prepagada will enroll you with just a passport, because the providers themselves dont know the rules that apply to their industry..That was.how I was enrolled years ago, with Coomeva  prepagada..just a passport. Also recently, SURA offered me enrollment in a progrram with only a passport...no visa  no cedula, no EPS, because the lady didnt know the rules and niether did the lawyer she refferred me to.

Like to hear how the Star insurance turns out..i.e. whether the Cancilleria  accepts it.

Like I said in the other thread, I used ATM Colombia for $360 a year and worked okay.

I have a similar active lifestyle to you and have probably only used  20% max of what I have paid into the Medicina  Prepagada over the years,  but am sticking to it for now.

As far as EPS, a mixed bag   depending who you talk to, but my experience talking to Colombians is its pretty crappy.

I will keep the group posted on my results with the low cost insurance policy.  I anticipate only getting a one year pensionado visa since that seems to be the norm now.  Anyone else have better luck? 

@expat42451

Having just experienced this issue.  I have my own personal health insurance from the US, but I had to get something that covers me for repatriation in Columbia and although this thread gives a lot of information you don’t really know until you go through it so go to Assist Card.com and call them. There are different levels. Good prices I think I paid $300 for a year an annual contract and you have to renew it annually so try that and good luck.!

@crespobrenda

Assist card is way over-priced for this purpose, which is strictly a bureaucratic function to meet the Cancillerias criteria on paper.

For some reason (hint, hint nudge  nudge, say no.more), the Expat Group keeps pushing them.

Myself and others have used ATM Colombia sucessfully and the other op on here has used Starr sucessfully.

And Assist Card is stil a lousy insurer despite the higher price. Good luck with them paying up in the.real world.

But if you want to waste several hundred to a thousand a year, go right ahead.

@crespobrenda

Well now if you paid $300 a year they obviously dropped their price because of the competition because it.used to be $900.a year minimum