Health Insurance Requirements in Puerto Rico? (credit, loan, pharmacy)

[chilove]

Do Puerto Ricans (or people from the mainland moving to PR) have to participate in the mandated health insurance or else pay the fine on their income tax? Is Obamacare available there? If not, what do most people do for health insurance?

[bamba_boy]

I've lived here just 9 months or so. I'm not an expert but the traditional ACA is not in effect here although there is a government web site to help a person find private insurance. Also seniors can get medicaid and I've bought a private plan that gets me into 95% of doctors and specialist doctors instead of 50%. I'm pretty sure there is no PR or USA mandate to have insurance.

Insurance is MUCH cheaper and the private company I used never asked about pre-existing conditions and have a cost structure less than half the cost my cheapest high deductible Obamacare quote in Texas (where I was living previously). Pretty happy about that but fortunately me and the family are pretty healthy. I'm pretty sure if we had cancer the quality of care isn't quite MD Anderson or Sloan Kettering. However, the better private hospitals have full American accreditation with high marks and are popular for medical tourism for rich South Americans, Central Americans and even some bargain-hunting Europeans. However, in some government hospitals and small private hospitals salaries are way behind USA hospitals and there has been a lot of brain drain. So it's sort of a mixed bag despite the much more reasonable costs.

So far I've used a clinic here for a plantar fascia attack and my wife a small but very impressive hospital 30 miles from San Juan for an infection. Our total doctor bills not paid for insurance was $30. Cant beat that! Prescriptions were reasonable too and from the familiar Walmart pharmacy.

[chilove]

Good to know! Thanks so much!

[WIHS2006]

I don't believe the ACA ever applied to territories, HOWEVER they were able to take advantage of the increased Medicaid funding through the ACA via a process run by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services under the US Department of Health & Human Services.

Eventually this will all become a mute point as we will eventually have to move towards an optional "Medicare for all" plan that would include all citizens regardless of age and location.