Purchase health insurance

You cannot purchase medical insurance from the Costa Rica national health plan (Caja).  Once you become a temporary resident you must apply for and obtain Caja.  Depending on your type of residency and what you declare for income vs. expenditures you can expect Caja to be in the neighborhood from $50 to $400 per month.  There could be people over $400 but that is the highest figure that I know of.

Thanks for the info. Appropriate it!

You can purchase private international health insurance.  It may include or exclude coverage in the USA (big savings if exclude).   The policies typically come with a significant deductible and may exclude your pre-existing conditions.  I purchased a policy thru this website:  https://www.gninsurance.com

Thanks Redbeard.

You would have to leave every 3 months or else apply for residency which is around $2500-3000 for 2 people if I recall correctly.

If you do become a legal resident and if you're a pensionado (on social security or other guaranteed pension) and have just a wife, (no kids) your national health insurance (CAJA or CCSS) is about $87 a month. Less for just one person. Not sure if it's half, though, I think quite a bit more than half...but not sure (?).

There is a health plan you can get without being a resident, but it's a discount plan, not insurance. All this info is from memory but if you are interested you can look up a post I made last year about it, here.

It depends on your age but if you're 59 or over you pay about $14 a month per person, and it gives you 50-60% discounts on lab tests and many other procedures, and 6 GP doctors visits per year for about $22 each plus 3 specialists for about $35 each.  This is in nice modern private clinics.

Of course the catch is, if you something major, you'd have to return to the USA for an operation (depending on if you have health insurance there, medicare or ?).

However if you don't have insurance, then the discount plan above is very good and major procedures are much less expensive here than in the USA. But this plan does not give you discounts on major surgeries. It does give discounts on some minor procedures such as colonoscopy as I recall, ultrasound, and other things.

Also if you're under 59 it's cheaper plus you get more doctors visits. The one I have is called Jackson Care. FYI.

And by the way, I do recommend it but it's not without it's issues. Making an  appointment is a bit of a chore (several phone calls and waiting for them to get back to you, usually; sometimes they don't so you gotta call back...) and some specialists are not always available for up to several months at least in San Ramon. If you live in San Jose area it's probably better as far as specialist availability.

But overall it's worth it even if you don't use it more than for a few tests or a couple dr. visits per year.