Medical Insurance in Mexico

Maybe not required but very desireable!

Not necessarily required by the hospital, but definitely required by the patient if help is needed in getting up, adjusting the bed, bathroom, eating, calling for help, adjusting the AC, walking for exercise, etc.

My experience with Guad hospitals, including Puerto Hierro, San Javier, Del Carmen, Terra Nova and Santa Maria Chapalita, is that one needs a person with you, and that this is expected by the hospital, unless you are just going in overnight for tests the next morning. I also understand that you need to do this at IMSS hospitals, but I believe they are segregated by sex, so one cannot take one's spouse. I have a friend in Guadalajara who is bilingual, a facilitator and a very nice person, who has stayed overnight for a friend of mine. It was IMSS, so she had to bring her own bedding and sleep on the floor. One can also hire a private duty nurse to stay overnight, so that, for example, one's spouse or friend can go home and sleep and shower and come back the next day.

I also wish to note that the food in some of these places is inedible and there is a reason most of them have a McDonald's nearby. (I seem to remember that one of them has one in the lobby, but I am not naming names!)

Smaller hospitals tend to be user-friendly and have nice rooms with amenities such as terraces; terraces are handy to hold all the relatives who will visit you if you are Mexican. For us gringos, terraces are nice as an antidote to a sterile environment, or if, God forbid, one's spouse smokes. (And speaking of sterile, San Javier has no windows; what were they thinking???) There are also smaller doctor-owned clinics that are still nicer and comfier; these are great for minor operations on your knee, for example, BUT I have no idea how good they are if you go into cardiac arrest; presumably, you will not do so during a minor surgery, or else your doctor would insist on somewhere that offers more comprehensive assistance. Clinics can be very comfortable for minor treatment; no one booming "CODE 4" over the intercom, which one puts up with in US hospitals, or at least I did when I lived in the US.