Dominican Healthcare
Is healthcare free in Dominican Republic? does it cost a lot? how are the doctors? Is their health insurance? A story from first hand experience to answer all your questions.
You never want to get injured or sick, and especially if you're in a different country. If you are ever so unfortunate. The best thing you can do is to know what to expect and be prepared, incase. Im going to give you insight from experience on how the Dominican health care works. First off, I should mention that in Dominican Republic there’s the option to get health insurance. You can pay by the month, or every 3 to 6 months, or if you prefer once a year. You have the option to select what you want your insurance to cover, with a selection of options. For example, you can select 80% - 100% off medication and it will reflect on your insurance bill. If you pay minimum insurance then expect to pay a higher fees for care and medicines. Insurance varies, some can go for $500-$1000 pesos each month and even more. It depends on the coverage you want.
My girlfriend slipped and partially fractured her knee bone. For those who don't know, the common flooring used in Dominican Republic is ceramic tile. Ceramic tile is hard like concrete. You cannot drop your phone (without a case), computer, or TV converter. She unfortunately was wearing non grip flats where water was spilled in a dark space of the home and took a fall. She could barley walk or put any pressure on it. She's never had an accident before where she needed to go to the hospital. This was the first in her life, but she always had health insurance. We went to the nearest hospital. Mind you, I'm a foreigner here and it's my first time in the hospital. She contacted a family doctor and he shortly met up with us there. He's a good man, he calmed the situation, and in true Dominican fashion he made everyone smile with some jokes. From there the doctor took down information he needed by asking his particular questions about the injury. Gave us a slip and told us to go down the hall and get a X-ray. First we must go to the front desk and show them our slip from the doctor. At the front desk it was done real fast, they asked us to pay $200 pesos ($4usd). After we gave them the money, the woman at the desk called us back and returned the money. She said that the insurance covers this fully. That whole process was fast not much people waiting there. Now we are in the X-ray room and its 3 doctors, looks like 1 main and 2 students. They were kind and explained exactly how the healing process would be and that the full leg will need to be in a cast. After getting the X-ray, we are then told to go to another part of the hospital to see another doctor that will just cast up the leg. Once we get to that area, it's full of people. Crowded as if they have been forever and the line hasn't moved. Then I'm told that’s exactly what’s happening. Now, i’m informed for the first time that we’re in a public hospital. Standing in the hallway for hours, my legs buckling and knowing this will likely be a sleep over in the standing positions. Some time later, half of the people leave. We finally see the doctor. They ask me to wait in the office, and as quick as I sit down, two mins later my girlfriend was displeased with this doctor and rightfully so. Now she wants to leave?
So, now I’m confused on why we are leaving? She explains that the doctor was going against what the previous doctors laid out. He was talking about draining the knee. He was saying that the fluids needed to be drained. Plus the doctors told her repeatedly the leg just needs to be wrapped up, no surgery or draining. So, we left and went to a private clinic. The private clinic was smaller and had a different feel to it. The felling that everything will go smoothly. As we walked in they put her on a bed and attended to her with full attentiveness as if it was an emergency. The nurse asked the necessary questions and relayed it to the doctor. The doctor came in and he was a comedian (great guy you can tell by how he treats every patient there). He wraps up the leg with a temporary cast then tells us to return in 1 week for a stronger cast (the cast were wrapping bandages). The total cost for that visit was $6000 pesos ($100usd), also included the following wrap bandage a week later and therapy for some weeks. The only separate cost was going back to the private clinic for the scheduled appointments which was $1000 pesos ($20usd) each time which is well worth it in my opinion. In the US you would be paying an arm and a leg, no point intended. Dominican Republic also has really good doctors, a lot are trained in the USA. In the bigger cities and the tourist areas you'll find more US educated doctors.
With life comes experience. I would only recommend anyone with the funds to go to the private clinic. Foreigners, just go to the private clinics. Not saying that the hospitals are bad either, because they were very prompt there and professional. It's expected for foreigners to go to private clinics. Less people, faster service and if you don't speak Spanish it's fine, they can speak English.