A faulty 46-year-old electrical system is to blame for a decision by administrators at San José's public Hospital México to shut down all 14 operating rooms as of Friday, the hospital's medical director, Douglas Montero, said.
Public hospitals in Costa Rica can refuse non-emergency care for self-employed workers who are behind in payments to the Social Security System, or Caja, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court, or Sala IV, ruled this week.
Much has changed in the world of Obamacare over the past few months since my last post on the subject. The broken website was repaired, the low enrollment numbers turned around (7.1 million people signed up, according to the White house) and open enrollment closed at the end of March. With Tax Day fast approaching, today we take a closer look at how the Affordable Care Act will affect specific expat situations.
PETÉN, Guatemala – For much of Guatemala’s monolingual Mayan population, the ability to access medical attention is often impeded by their inability to speak Spanish. The right to adequate health care without discrimination is enshrined in their country’s constitution; however, since hospitals work only in Spanish, indigenous people often are marginalized and restricted from obtaining basic treatment due to their vernacular.
