What is INSABI?

El Instituto de Salud para el Bienestar (INSABI), which is called the Institute of Health for Well-being in English, replaced Seguro Popular on January 1, 2020. INSABI provides free health services to all people in Mexico who do not have Social Security. INSABI is not typically recommended as the primary healthcare option for foreigners living in Mexico, but some older expats who cannot get adequate coverage under IMSS due to pre-existing conditions, enroll in INSABI and pay out-of-pocket for private care as needed.

On paper, INSABI sounds like it offers a good level of basic healthcare for Mexican and foreign residents. If you are considering using el INSABI as your primary healthcare service, you need to be aware of some of the issues that expats and locals have experienced with the system. "AMLO deleted Seguro Popular Jan. 1st. 2020 and instead replaced it with INSABI which is a scaled down medical insurance that has no coverage for anyone with 3rd. tier illnesses which the Seguro Popular used to cover. Any legal resident, whether Residente Permanente or Residente Temporal can go there and legally they could also with the Seguro Popular but a few state governors in some states in the last year or so of its existence illegally blocked Residente Temporals from joining. There was no qualifying because of preconsisting illnesses. If you need tier 3 diagnosis or treatment such as heart surgery, cancer, brain surgery, vascular surgery, etc. INSABI won't - you pay. IMSS if you qualify will cover these illnesses. It rejects people with many pre-existing illnesses and has different lengths of waiting periods for many illneses before coverage starts from 6 months to 3 years - depends. INSABI has no scale of payment. It is free and no need to join. Just be a citizen or legal resident and show your INM resident card and your CURP. For 98 percent of Seguro Popular members it was free. About 2 percent paid a small fee. All IMSS members pay anual fees depending on age up to about $17,000 pesos a year for a 75 year old. It goes up every year it seems," wrote one expat. Another expat cautioned, "Because it is free, you may not get an appointment with a specialist for weeks or months. Sometimes people die waiting for an appointment."