Healthcare in Paraguay

There is a huge difference between public and private health insurance in Paraguay. You would want private health insurance. Public health won't pay for much at all, and you will be asked to cover the cost of x-rays, medications, etc. Also, public hospitals are not anywhere near the quality of private hospitals or sanatorios. The best local hospitals in Asuncion are sanatorio San Roque, sanatorio Migone, hospital la Costa, etc. They can orient you as to how to purchase private health insurance in Asuncion. There are different plans and their coverage differ depending on how much you decide to pay and buy.

Just posted this in another thread but realized it is applicable here too:

If you are going to be here long term (more than a year) you might consider getting private health insurance.  Unlike in the US health insurance here covers the small stuff - doctor´s visits, etc but not large things like dialysis.  If you want to cover all your bases you´ll need both a normal plan and a "alta complejidad" plan.  Popular health insurance companies are Oami and Asismed and, given the relatively low cost it is definitely recommended. If you plan to travel around Paraguay be sure to check with each company as to their countrywide coverage - some have very little coverage outside of Asunción.

That said, if you are going to be here short term you will find that for most procedures, appointments, etc in the private health sector the cost is relatively low (for a foreigner) so paying out of pocket may not be a big deal.

Natalia
www.discoveringparaguay.com

Hi,

In order to help expats and soon-to-be expats, we would like to invite you to share your experience on this topic, with updated info on the healthcare system.

Thank you in advance,

Julie
Expat.com Team

I need to learn about this as well as I have some health problems and if I get close to death I don't want like a 50,000 usd hospital bill which I can't pay so I need to find some insurance with an agent there who speaks English.

SeekingParaguay wrote:

I need to learn about this as well as I have some health problems and if I get close to death I don't want like a 50,000 usd hospital bill which I can't pay so I need to find some insurance with an agent there who speaks English.

Prudent thing to do is not to depend on public health service and secure private health insurance.   This is not very expensive but it does contain preexisting conditions exclusion.   For the time being, you may want to consider keeping your current canadian coverage and jump on a first plane before you get into serious troubles.

The initial posts from back in 2012 are still relevant.  One private insurance that was at one time the largest insurer in Paraguay and still one of the most popular is Assimed.   Their higher end policies do not have pre-existing condition exclusions.   Our family uses their "Premier Plan" which translates to a premium of around $200 a month for the 3 of us.   They have two hospitals in Asuncion and smaller clinics in smaller towns, one we use is in Cacuupe. One thing that all private (and public) health plans that I know of DO NOT cover is drug costs, even to the point that if you're hospitalized you will be required to pay for all drugs used in your treatment.   But keep in mind drug prices here are much less expensive than in North America or Europe.   And yes you can get just about any drug here that you can get in the first world.  And yes there are doctors, dentists that speak English or German.   But as this is Paraguay you really can't count on one being available in an emergency so I'd advise you strongly to know some basic survival Spanish if you come here.