Insurance in Cozumel

Living on the island, in some ways at least, is no different than living in another country. There are some things you should consider doing sooner rather than later. One of those is obtaining insurance. We have insurance on our home, car, and medical insurance. The first two were no-brainers for us really. If a hurricane hits, I don’t want to lose everything and be unable to recover. If I’m in an accident, I want to be covered for repairs and any other expenses that might be involved. Medical insurance we did debate for a little while, but not for long.

Let me begin by saying that insurance is MUCH less expensive here compared to the US! I don’t mind sharing that my home insurance is about $800 USD per year, and auto is about $700 per year. Big difference compared to what I paid in Texas! What I’d really like to address is the medical insurance.

If you are a resident, you can purchase Mexican medical insurance to cover you. I know some of you will already have US insurance. It may cover you here, but the odds are that you are going to have to pay in full out of pocket and wait to get reimbursed for your expenses if you are hospitalized. And Medicare, to my knowledge anyway, is useless here. Perhaps you have an international medical insurance policy. Those are good, too. However, I found the Mexican policy to be less expensive and more comprehensive. Let me give you an example.

The policy we carry has a $9,000 peso deductible per incident, and an $85,000 peso lifetime deductible. It will pay up to $50,000 USD for an emergency that occurs in the US. It also covers prescription medications at select pharmacies. So what does this mean? My first incident was the congestive heart failure. Before I could be admitted to the hospital, I had to pay the deductible, which was the equivalent of $430 USD. At discharge, I owed not one single peso. Subsequently, all medications involved in that incident were reimbursable. The same was true when I was hospitalized for kidney failure. For me, this is so much better than having to pay the total bill before they would discharge me, which was surely in the thousands!

The cost of medical insurance here will obviously depend on different factors, including your age. I strongly recommend that you obtain it before the age of 60 if you can as the rates are lower. We were fortunately able to do that. Having just this month paid my annual renewal fee, I can tell you that the cost for BOTH of us was a whopping $3,875 USD. Compare THAT to what people now pay in the US! Filing claims is the only real hassle, but once you get the hang of it, it’s not so bad.

I’m sure there are other providers available to Cozumel residents, but here are the two I am most familiar with:

AXA
Irma Cantarell
irma@seguroscantarell.com
987-871-9415

Cozumel Insurance
Desiree Sanroman
desireesanromanaranda@gmail.com
987-876-1483 (cell)