Medical Care in Costa Rica

We recently signed up for MediSmart, a prepaid discount medical plan. At a low yearly cost of $173 USD for the both of us, we have access to quality private health care. Specialists, x-rays, lab work, hospital rooms and operating room times offer us 40% to 80% savings on medical services. There are no exclusions for age or pre-existing conditions.

My ID card - note the mixed up names!

We also belong to Costa Rica’s socialized medical system, known as Caja (which I’ve discussed in earlier posts). We use it regularly. However, there are times when we want to see a specialist without having to wait. Last week, we went to our first appointment with MediSmart. I had made the appointment on line. The web site has an English version so very easy to navigate. I indicated which specialty I wanted and up popped a list of the appropriate doctors with their bios and photos. You can indicate which time of day you want your appointment for, if you want to see a particular doctor and if you want Spanish or English speaking. The next day I received an email with a selected doctor’s name, the date of the appointment and two appointment times I could select from. I just had to select the time I wanted and send back an email.

We took the bus to the Coca Cola bus terminal in San José, planning to take a taxi from there to Hospital Metropolitano, where MediSmart is located. It was pouring rain when we got off the bus and we did not have an umbrella. We were right in front of the Mercado Central, San José’s largest indoor market, established in 1880. We were going to go in and look for umbrellas when, lo and behold, our Water Guy appeared. He’s the fellow that has sodas, water, and snacks for sale at the bus station. He will also make sure you get on the correct bus, load your purchases into the bus cargo bay, and find you a good seat on the bus. He speaks Spanish, English and (I think) French.

We told him we needed an umbrella and he said, “Follow me”. Into the market we went, and he took us to a stall where we purchased an excellent quality paraguas. Then off we went to Hospital Metropolitano. My doctor was on the third floor and I didn’t have to wait long to see him. Total cost for a consultation with a specialist, a bit of minor surgery and lab work was 90,000 colones, about $180 USD. He will also be emailing me the lab work results. If anything further needs to be done, I can take his paperwork to my Caja doctor and have it done through Caja or go back to the MediSmart doctor.

For us, we like having two medical care options. MediSmart is worth looking into.

They’re Here!

And we’ve been expecting them! Army ants - they have been working their way from house to house and we were next on their list. I first noticed them Sunday morning while I was outside. My feet and lower legs started burning. I looked down and there were ants everywhere and they were biting me. The bites really sting and two days later I can still feel the bites.

Army ants are called “cleaner ants” here because if they get into a house, they will clean every surface of dead or live insects, dirt, food crumbs, etc., and then leave. Your house will be spotless! You may as well go out for several hours because they will leave when good and ready. We managed to keep them out of our house this time and they headed towards our gate and the road.

Here is a short video I made of them swarming over our hedge and laneway:

Tropical Storm Nate, Costa Rica - October 2017

On Wednesday, October 4, 2017, Costa Rica was slammed by tropical storm Nate. At our house, we experienced strong winds and rain, rain and more rain overnight and all of Friday. Fortunately, we only experienced some water ingress into our house and flooded areas and mud outside. Water was surging down the road and the drainage ditches. It sounded like we lived next to a river. Our electricity and internet stayed on. Much of the rest of the country fared much worse. By Saturday, the storm had headed north and the sun came out.

Rivers were overflowing banks; houses were destroyed and families uprooted; schools were closed; roads and bridges were damaged and destroyed; farms and plantations are under water; roads were closed and many areas were/still are without electricity.

At our property, the total rainfall for the first seven days of October, 2017, was more than the rainfall in all of October of last year:

        First seven days of October 2017 = 13.29”/33.76cm. 

        All of October 2016 = 12.83”/32.59cm.

October is the rainiest month on the Pacific side and the driest month on the Caribbean side.

On October 6, the online newspaper AM Costa Rica reported at least six dead, 377,000 people without water, and 7,000 in emergency shelters. Deaths were attributed to landslides, falling trees and car accidents.

Lance prepared this chart:

Here are a few pictures taken around our house:

Blocking the back door to keep water out - sort of works!

Flooding at the front.

Lance reading the rain gauge.

Mud, mud, mud.

I also made a short video on Saturday showing the drainage ditches outside our property. You can see why they are built so deep. That is our Cat snooping around.

Life’s Little Challenges .... Stupid Parrot

Today Lance saw a small bird fall down into our yard from somewhere and our cat did also. The cat started stalking the bird. Lance said, “it’s a parrot.” This is unusual ... flocks of small green parrots fly over our house all the time but they never stop in our yard and they don’t have blue colours on them.

Grabbed Cat and put him in the house. The pretty green/blue parrot was okay, busily running up and down bushes eating whatever parrots eat on bushes. I think his wings may have been clipped because he could fly very short distances but not gain any altitude. This made us think he was someone’s pet. Plus, he wasn’t very nervous and was not with a flock.

The bird ended up across our fence on our neighbour’s property. We went next door to see if we could help the little parrot but he was nowhere to be seen. 

Walking back to our house .... with all the rain we have had recently, our short laneway was very slippery. Wearing flip flops, I did a flip flop and took a fall. Net result: one bloody knee, one pair of pants with hole and a muddy shirt ... both going in the garbage. 

One Aleve tablet .... I should be fine!