Expat Community > Ecuador

achiku
Joined 2011
Posts: 616

Ecuadorian Health Care Comment...

12 years ago

Mick, you say "EC, as poor as it is, has national healthcare. "

Well, struggling middle class Ecuadorians do not take advantage of this 'national healthcare,' as it is quite substandard. The Social Security hospitals are not the best and most will go into debt to get an operation or a serious procedure done at a "Pay for" clinic or hospital. These Healthcare facilities are definitely FOR PROFIT. As a matter of fact, even at the public hospitals now, there is profit needed....as they have huge payroll and other expenses nowadays. If you don't believe me about the quality at these hospitals, just check into one!

Of course, for the poor, I mean the very poor, there is at least something, but even these hospitals make the poor people pay in the form of buying many materials; some that do not even pertain to their situation. Funny thing about the man who was made to go out and purchase Gauze and 'other things'...when he had a stomach ulcer. At the "National" hospital in Otavalo, there is a doctor that has notariously drank a half bottle of sugar cane moonshine before he operates. It has been the talk and the joke of the town for years.....he just recently took off the wrong limb (again!).....I sure wish they would get rid of this guy! The problem is, a doctor who is not "good" on his own, can always get a job at one of these hospitals.....of course it is the real bottom of the barrel for some.

Just in the last 5-8 years, many private clinics have sprung up outside of the biggest cities, and the Americans coming here to live can certainly afford to pay out of pocket if they wish to have 'decent' health care.....an MRI right now in one of the major cities may be under $500...and other procedures, only a fraction of US cost. Of course, there is no "Malpractice" suits here, no ambulance chasing lawyers as of yet... and you just take your chances. Sorry Americans, you can't sue the doctors here. These things do not happen yet in developing (3rd world) countries.

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