The Social Security in Costa Rica: La Caja.

If you live and work in Costa Rica, you would need to get a residency and to get that you would need to get on to the Caja, or Social Security. Once you are on it, you might as well use it, after all it is free medical service, and the private hospitals are so expensive!

The caja may have many advantages, but it also has many, many drawbacks.

If you have an emergency, lets say you broke your leg or need an operation, they are impeccable. Remember that the doctors who work in the Caja Hospitals are the very same who work in the private hospitals. The main difference is not only that you will not feel pampered, you will not be presented with a huge check!

If you have a flu, la Grippe, or suffer from a common cold, or have allergies, very common these days with this hot and humid weather, you had better arm yourself with infinite patience before you take your first step towards getting an appointment: Getting the appointment proves to be the first difficulty. You will not only have to get up at 5am or earlier to queue up in order to get this appointment, the fact is, you may not get the appointment at all, instead you will told to come back tomorrow! And there is no guarantee that tomorrow will bring any success either!

I have seen very sick people waiting in the cold morning breeze for hours only to be turned out.  To me, this is shocking. I suffer from allergy, and while I am waiting in vain, I feel terrible and I do not know when I will be seen or even exactly what is wrong with me. Further more, when I finally got to see a doctor, he prescribes some drugs for me without doing any blood tests first, therefore I do not know what type of allergy I have, what I am allergic to, or even, if I do suffer from allergy or something else!

Once the doctor sends you to have tests, you will need to go in a remote place in San Jose only to make an appointment and you will be lucky if this is going to be less than six months before anything materialize! In the meantime, you may of course find that you have passed away! This may sound slightly exaggerated but it is discouraging and what usually happens is that people give up and go private. This can be a financial strain that should not have to happen; after all, those working here pay for the Caja!