[QUOTE=AppleApe;24754947]my Kaiser rep told me that medical evacuation flight is not included.

I have a family friend who was a retired diplomat once posted in El Salvador.
He said public clinics and hospitals there should NEVER be used unless in a
life and death crisis. Private clinics and hospitals were still not up to U.S.
standards, but at lease better than nothing. Most decent private hospitals
charge foreigners $$$$$.

He had a friend who was visiting San Salvador on vacation and had a heart
attack that required immediate surgery.(which was confirmed by his doctor
back in Chicago) The hospital demanded advance payment and would not
accept any promise by his Blue Cross healthinsurance.(even after Blue Cross
faxed it in writing to the hospital) He ended up putting everything on his
three credit cards(which only had about $47k credit limit). He also had to
borrow several credit cards from three other friends because the hospital
wanted $70k advance payment. It turned out that they only charged local
citizens $52k for the same procedure. This was 5 years ago the guy is still
fine today. Oh... and he did get reimbursement from Blue Cross a few weeks
after returning to the US. Blue paid back $69,000 minus a $500 deductible.
At least that was cheaper than what the surgery would have cost in a Chicago
hospital in the Blue network.(around $180,000)[/QUOTE

Then you will definitely need some sort of evac coverage, either membership or insurance. Did the rep offer any options for purcasing it a la carte?

Do you know what facility treated him? I've seen bills for emergency cardiac surgery hit 30k in Mexico and Costa Rica, but those are much wealthier countries. With the per capita income of El Salvador only averaging $7500/ year, they can't be doing too many $52K surgeries for locals.


Edited to add: A quick search for posted procedure costs brings up several instances of expats reporting massively inflated "gringo prices" in San Salvador hospitals. These include a $12k C-section in 2010. Sad but fascinating. My brothers weeklong hospital stay in Nicaragua totaled $140.00, mostly for meds and surgical supplies.