I heartily disagree that your posts have been self-indulgent; by being willing to give the details of your experience, you are providing a lot of very useful information for those of us who are still in the nascent stage of this process. As much as I enjoy all of your posts, ones like this week’s are valuable to me on a whole other level. Thank you.
I would definitely keep the health insurance. Public is wonderful for emergencies or serious illnesses but if you want a routine exam or doctor you can have it much quicker private.
I am now also a resident in Portugal, (originally from South Africa). I have private healthcare with Allianz. My Rheumatologist prescribed my Humira Injections that I have been using for 5 years, through the National Healthcare portal. I collect these at Aveiro main (public) Hospital and I pay nothing. I recently had a knee replacement at CUF Coimbra and my experience has been very good. Allianz funded the surgery but the costs were substantially less than it would have been in South Africa.
Hi Juli, my wife Susan and I are planning to move to Portugal. When we contacted Allianz we were told that my wife's RA would be excluded or, worse, she could not be insured at all for her preexisting RA. What agent did you go through to receive Allianz insurance?
Hi Steven, all my pre-existing conditions were accepted by Allianz with no waiting period. You can contact me on julikirchnerrobertson@gmail.com for our policy and agent's details. We use Fabio Cintra - f.cintra@medal.pt
I use Humira injections and collect that for free from Aveiro Hospital's Pharmacy. :)
Thanks so much for the blow by blow details of the costs and of your experience of the care you received. This is very interesting regardless of whether one ever considers being an expat in Portugal.
The search function in this applications not perfect, but can be helpful. Enter “healthcare” or “ medicine” or “insurance” in the magnifying glass field on my homepage to find everything I have written on this subject.
Nancy; Thanks so much for your sharing of the 'day to day'. I am preparing for surgery in US and fully expect to receive opioid pain meds...it's expected but worried now that I know more about how some brains are ALTERED after taking prescription...very scary! Also greatly appreciate your info about Travel Insurance. Sounds like today we need to have one year for D7 Visa, so hopefully the private 'waiting period' will be covered with the Travel insurance if there is a need.
I don’t think you need 1 yr of Travel Insurance. In fact, I am not sure it is available. Once you complete your residency meeting (typically 3 months after you arrive) you are covered bu the public system. You can also purchase private insurance as soon as you arrive.
Fascinating, and also not surprising. Skip the marble entry, and give me a reasonable bill any day. Glad it all went so well, and hope you are healing quickly!
Great post about your patient experiences. I trust you are feeling better everyday. We are planning our 2022 travel schedule. Hopefully we can take a trip to Portugal. When would you suggest ??
I also had a surgery at CUF and I had a pre authorization from my private insurance Allianz my total out of pocket was 176€ which was 10% of total cost. That was for diagnosis, treatment and one night in the Hospital. I give it a 10 out of 10:)
“Since Medicare benefits are available only in the United States, it may not be to your advantage to pay the premium for Part B medical insurance if you will be out of the United States for a long period of time. But be aware that when you return and sign up for Part B, your premium will be 10% higher for each 12-month period you could have been enrolled in Part B, but were not.”
“When using TRICARE For Life in [non U.S. territories] overseas locations, whether you live overseas or are traveling overseas, TRICARE is the primary payer and you're responsible for paying TRICARE's annual deductible and cost shares…If you live overseas, you must have Part B to remain eligible for TRICARE even though Medicare doesn't provide coverage overseas”. -Armchair research
Richard, it would be best to check with Medicare but this is what i believe is true. If you drop Part B and return to states you would have to pay all back payments before your Part B benefits are reinstated. Again Part B covers the 80% Medicare approves for all physican charges. Tricare
Sorry hard to type one handed…Tricare which pays MD and Hospital not covered by Medicare (the 20%) stays in effect regardless of where we live and is a benefit of Denise retiring from the military.
I heartily disagree that your posts have been self-indulgent; by being willing to give the details of your experience, you are providing a lot of very useful information for those of us who are still in the nascent stage of this process. As much as I enjoy all of your posts, ones like this week’s are valuable to me on a whole other level. Thank you.
I would definitely keep the health insurance. Public is wonderful for emergencies or serious illnesses but if you want a routine exam or doctor you can have it much quicker private.
I am now also a resident in Portugal, (originally from South Africa). I have private healthcare with Allianz. My Rheumatologist prescribed my Humira Injections that I have been using for 5 years, through the National Healthcare portal. I collect these at Aveiro main (public) Hospital and I pay nothing. I recently had a knee replacement at CUF Coimbra and my experience has been very good. Allianz funded the surgery but the costs were substantially less than it would have been in South Africa.
Hi Juli, my wife Susan and I are planning to move to Portugal. When we contacted Allianz we were told that my wife's RA would be excluded or, worse, she could not be insured at all for her preexisting RA. What agent did you go through to receive Allianz insurance?
Thanks,
Steven
We don’t have Allianz. We have MGEN Advancecare that we obtained from our agent Anawho can be reached here: ana.vieira@capdeville-seguros.com
Hi Steven, all my pre-existing conditions were accepted by Allianz with no waiting period. You can contact me on julikirchnerrobertson@gmail.com for our policy and agent's details. We use Fabio Cintra - f.cintra@medal.pt
I use Humira injections and collect that for free from Aveiro Hospital's Pharmacy. :)
Thanks so much for the blow by blow details of the costs and of your experience of the care you received. This is very interesting regardless of whether one ever considers being an expat in Portugal.
Very informative
These have been really interesting and helpful! Thank you for being willing to share the details. I hope you continue to heal well and quickly.
Great information, much appreciated. BTW, neither of our SEF appointments asked for health insurance. Hmmmm.
Hi Nancy, really enjoying your blog. Thanks for all your wonderful insights.
I thought I was responding to Juli's comment directly and was expecting her response.
However, we will contact Ann at MGEN about health insurance. It is one if my wife's biggest concerns moving here.
Currently we live in Germany and are used to some very good and inexpensive health care
It would be great if you could point us to some more resources about health care in Portugal.
Best regards,
Steven
The search function in this applications not perfect, but can be helpful. Enter “healthcare” or “ medicine” or “insurance” in the magnifying glass field on my homepage to find everything I have written on this subject.
Nancy; Thanks so much for your sharing of the 'day to day'. I am preparing for surgery in US and fully expect to receive opioid pain meds...it's expected but worried now that I know more about how some brains are ALTERED after taking prescription...very scary! Also greatly appreciate your info about Travel Insurance. Sounds like today we need to have one year for D7 Visa, so hopefully the private 'waiting period' will be covered with the Travel insurance if there is a need.
I don’t think you need 1 yr of Travel Insurance. In fact, I am not sure it is available. Once you complete your residency meeting (typically 3 months after you arrive) you are covered bu the public system. You can also purchase private insurance as soon as you arrive.
Fascinating, and also not surprising. Skip the marble entry, and give me a reasonable bill any day. Glad it all went so well, and hope you are healing quickly!
Great post about your patient experiences. I trust you are feeling better everyday. We are planning our 2022 travel schedule. Hopefully we can take a trip to Portugal. When would you suggest ??
I also had a surgery at CUF and I had a pre authorization from my private insurance Allianz my total out of pocket was 176€ which was 10% of total cost. That was for diagnosis, treatment and one night in the Hospital. I give it a 10 out of 10:)
Glad you had a great experience
We’re you able to pay your 500 euros by credit card?
You may pay by creditcard.
Nancy, great info. If you dropped your supplemental insurance Tricare could you reinstate it IF you were ever able to move back?
Also IF you give up your part B and you return to USA, can you reapply for that?
Stay healthy. Glad everything was approved finally.
Please read Sharon’s comments
“Since Medicare benefits are available only in the United States, it may not be to your advantage to pay the premium for Part B medical insurance if you will be out of the United States for a long period of time. But be aware that when you return and sign up for Part B, your premium will be 10% higher for each 12-month period you could have been enrolled in Part B, but were not.”
“When using TRICARE For Life in [non U.S. territories] overseas locations, whether you live overseas or are traveling overseas, TRICARE is the primary payer and you're responsible for paying TRICARE's annual deductible and cost shares…If you live overseas, you must have Part B to remain eligible for TRICARE even though Medicare doesn't provide coverage overseas”. -Armchair research
Thank you
Thanks👍
Richard, it would be best to check with Medicare but this is what i believe is true. If you drop Part B and return to states you would have to pay all back payments before your Part B benefits are reinstated. Again Part B covers the 80% Medicare approves for all physican charges. Tricare
Sorry hard to type one handed…Tricare which pays MD and Hospital not covered by Medicare (the 20%) stays in effect regardless of where we live and is a benefit of Denise retiring from the military.