{"id":1436,"date":"2013-08-19T11:01:59","date_gmt":"2013-08-19T17:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.topmexicorealestate.com\/lets-retire-in-mexico\/?p=1436"},"modified":"2014-10-07T15:26:23","modified_gmt":"2014-10-07T20:26:23","slug":"childbirth-at-the-local-public-hospital-best-treatment-ive-had","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.topmexicorealestate.com\/lets-retire-in-mexico\/2013\/08\/childbirth-at-the-local-public-hospital-best-treatment-ive-had\/","title":{"rendered":"Childbirth at the Local Public Hospital – \u201cBest Treatment I’ve Had\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Friday I posted about the variety of health care options available to choose from on a day to day basis in Mexico<\/a>. Today, I’m going to share the story of an expat who’s worked in the office here for the past few years and their experience with the public hospitals, specifically his wife and childbirth.\u00a0 While most expats we know won’t be going in to have a baby delivered any time soon, it reflects how good the service is even in Mexico’s \u201cworking-class\u201d health care system.<\/p>\n

Here it is in his own words:<\/p>\n

\u201cMy wife and I have had 4 children; the last 2 were twins, so it was 3 childbirths for my wife \u2013 the first was in a semi-charitable hospital specialized in childbirth and maternal health in Mexico City, the second was the public-insurance hospital (IMSS) in <\/em>Playa del Carmen<\/a>, and the third was a hospital in Canada.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAs for cost, for the one in Canada my wife \u2013 who is Mexican \u2013 was not yet covered by public health insurance, so we had to pay it out of pocket.\u00a0 While they gave us easy, interest-free payment options, it was a HUGE bill, by far the most expensive.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe cheapest?\u00a0 The IMSS hospital in Playa del Carmen.\u00a0 Our entire family was covered by my wife’s insurance; we had started a little family business, and I had \u201chired\u201d her.\u00a0 The monthly fee was pretty low.\u00a0 In any case, I know you can also get full coverage on a person-by-person basis for about $350 a year.\u00a0 However you get this insurance, it’s simply cheap.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Best Service<\/em><\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cNow, you’ll never guess which was the best treatment.\u00a0 The specialist hospital in Mexico City was very professional, and without a doubt knew what they were doing, but my wife said it was impersonal.\u00a0 Canada \u2013 well, it was Canada.\u00a0 Nice doctors, nice nurses.\u00a0 Did everything right, and were very friendly, but nothing above and beyond.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe public-insurance hospital in Playa \u2013 she remembers going in; the nurse put on music, and made a real effort to make her comfortable.\u00a0 It was the longest birth of all them, but she never felt like they were rushed or anything, she was comfortable and well-attended the whole time.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the last birth in Canada, she said the level of service and comfort was a close call, but Playa del Carmen’s IMSS hospital still won out \u2013 and this is considering that it was all but free!<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Choices<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cNow we had our options in Playa.\u00a0 There were excellent private hospitals that would’ve charged anywhere up to about $1600 for childbirth \u2013 a far cry from the $8000 we paid in Canada!\u00a0 There were also private gynecologists who charged about the same or somewhat less.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe were thinking about those options.\u00a0 But in the end we thought: we have this insurance already; there’s a brand-new, pretty-looking IMSS hospital in town.\u00a0 Previously they would’ve had to send us to Cancun, which we weren’t terribly interested in, but with the new hospital we could be a 5 minute drive from our house.\u00a0 We knew people who work at the hospital, and had been there for some of the pre-natal check-ups.\u00a0 Everything seemed professional and well run.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe decided to go for it, and \u2013 considering it was the cheapest and BEST treatment my wife had \u2013 we’re glad we did.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Down Sides<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cNot everything is rosy and perfect.\u00a0 We had only one major complaint; I wasn’t allowed into the delivery room.\u00a0 This is standard practice in all public\/low-cost hospitals in Mexico. The private options I mentioned would’ve allowed it.\u00a0 Since all the options looked really good, the question came to this \u2013 was it worth $1600 for me to be in the delivery room? Since we were still paying off the little townhouse we bought, we decided ‘no.’<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cMy wife would’ve liked.\u00a0 I would’ve liked it.\u00a0 But the excellent treatment they gave her helped to balance that somewhat.<\/em><\/p>\n


\n\u201cThe other downside was the quick shipment out the door.\u00a0 They definitely took the time to make sure she and the baby were in good shape and that she had rested enough to go home.\u00a0 But the baby was born at 6 am; by 2 pm, she was at home. \u201cSame day delivery\u201d I guess \u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBUT Canada was no different!\u00a0 While I did get to be in the delivery room, she was also out the door before at the soonest possible moment.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cSo, in the IMSS hospital, I stayed up all night in the waiting room, read an entire book of The Lord of the Rings, drank about 10 cups of coffee (there’s an all-night OXXO, like 7-11, across the road) and probably paced a hole into their brand-new floor.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI remember when Tom came by to pick me up around noon so we could get my older son and mother-in-law to welcome our new baby as a family; we didn’t have a car, and I wouldn’t have been in the shape drive any way.\u00a0 I must have looked like a wreck, but I was the happiest man in the world.\u00a0 I had just talked to the doctor, who also looked like a wreck after being up all night delivering babies; but, as attested to by wife, he has spared no effort to make everything go well.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Bottom Line<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe bottom line is that IMSS, one of Mexico’s \u201ccheap\u201d options, gives Canada’s first-world healthcare a run for its money, which cost about 100 times more (if we count all the usage we got out of it); even if Canada had been free, IMSS still won out on the comfort they provided for my wife.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

So, there you have it.\u00a0 I’m going to dig up some more health care stories from expats here in Mexico in the future.\u00a0 I can tell this already; while it’s not all perfect, you begin to see a pattern \u2013 lower cost, better service.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

-by Thomas Lloyd<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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