Health insurance in Belize: How to choose the right plan

Belize is a hugely popular destination for English-speaking expats. First and foremost, the country’s Caribbean location and warm climate have obvious appeal. Also, English is the country’s official language and is commonly spoken across the country. This makes Belize particularly popular for expats from the US, Canada, and the UK.

While there are expats of all types in Belize, it’s particularly popular for retirees. That’s because the country offers a generous retirement visa called the Qualified Retired Persons (QRP) program. To be accepted, you need to be at least 40 years old and have at least $2,000 a month of foreign income.

But while Belize is a great destination for expats, getting quality healthcare in the country isn’t always easy. Not all expats are entitled to coverage under the country’s public healthcare system. And even if you are, the country has virtually no level-one trauma center or oncology. If you need emergency care, you’ll likely have to travel abroad, which can be very expensive.

So how do expats in Belize ensure quality healthcare without huge costs? Here, we explain everything you need to know about healthcare and health insurance in Belize.

Healthcare in Belize: How the system works

Like most countries, Belize has a mixture of both public and private healthcare. For local citizens, the public system is the default setting, with the system being managed by the Ministry of Health and Wellness (MoHW). Care is either free or comes with limited up-front costs.

Public healthcare is largely funded by social security contributions (SSCs). This is known as the National Health Insurance program (NHI), with most citizens and long-term residents paying in. In fact, the government has only recently finished its program of rolling out NHI across the whole country, which began back in 2001.

However, private treatment still remains a big part of the country’s healthcare landscape. In particular, the country’s capital has two flagship private hospitals: Belize Medical Associates (BMA) and Belize Healthcare Partners (BHP). By Western standards, costs are reasonably cheap here.

However, an important caveat: Even these private hospitals don’t offer all types of treatment. Belize is a small country with just 400,000 inhabitants, meaning it can’t offer as wide a range of healthcare treatments as other countries. For most serious or emergency treatment, residents simply have to go elsewhere – generally, Mexico, Guatemala, or the US. This includes treatment like cardiac, oncology, major trauma, or complex surgery.

This is perhaps the most important thing for expats to understand about Belize. Emergency evacuation or repatriation can be very expensive, often running into tens of thousands of dollars. That’s before you’ve accounted for the cost of treatment. Neither the NHI system nor local private insurers will cover these costs.

That's why it's so important to have private insurance with emergency evacuation included. Generally, this is only available in international insurance plans.

Belize medical insurance: What are the main options?

For expats, there are essentially three options for healthcare and health insurance in Belize. Here’s a quick overview of how they compare:

Public healthcare

Public healthcare is funded by the National Health Insurance (NHI) program, which now applies across the whole country. But as an expat, you’re only included in the scheme if you’re employed by a Belizean business or registered as self-employed in the country. In this case, you’ll pay social security contributions (SSCs), just like a local citizen.

If you’re not paying SSCs, you can’t access free or subsidized public healthcare. In particular, this applies to digital nomads or retirees, who are explicitly barred.

But even if you are entitled to public healthcare, it’s unwise to rely on it. Belize’s healthcare resources are overwhelmingly concentrated in the country's capital. The overall system also suffers from significant resource constraints.

As such, healthcare outcomes in the country are generally below international standards. In fact, a recent study found life expectancy in the country to rank 99th of the 193 global countries surveyed, slightly below the global median.

Therefore, most expats in the country choose to take out private or international insurance. This ensures you’ve got access to the best treatment in and outside of Belize, whether or not you’re covered under the public system.

Private health insurance in Belize

This option provides access to private healthcare within Belize. Some of the country’s most popular providers include RF&G Life Insurance, and the Atlantic Insurance Company. Collectively, these are regulated by the Office of the Supervisor of Insurance & Private Pensions (OSIPP).

Private health insurance in Belize is often noticeably cheaper than in other countries. This reflects the country’s low healthcare costs. And in general, private healthcare providers offer wider coverage and better quality than the public system.

But even private healthcare in Belize doesn’t offer the most serious or emergency treatment. Crucially, local private insurers rarely cover emergency evacuation or repatriation. This means you could still be saddled with high out-of-pocket costs in an emergency.

International health insurance in Belize

International health insurance is designed for expats. But here’s the crucial detail. It’s the only option that regularly includes emergency evacuation/ repatriation coverage.

As well as this, international health insurance offers coverage both inside Belize and around the world. This gives you access to the highest-quality healthcare available in Belize, as well as treatment abroad when needed.

There’s another helpful benefit that makes this particularly attractive to retirees. These policies are much more likely to accept older customers than standard private insurers. At Feather, for example, our age limit is 75 years old, much higher than the 60-65 standard of other insurance companies.

For these reasons, international health insurance in Belize is by far the best option for most expats.

Medical evacuation: The make-or-break feature for health insurance

The lack of serious/emergency treatment in Belize makes emergency evacuation effectively non-negotiable. Without it, you can easily end up with a sudden bill running into the tens of thousands.

The cost of air ambulances and treatment will hugely depend on where you need to travel to and what procedures you need. But if you need emergency treatment, this can easily run into the tens of thousands – and that’s just for transport. You also have to account for the fact that healthcare costs in countries like the US are much more expensive than in Belize.

In practice, emergency evacuation alone isn’t enough: You also need to understand exactly what the coverage cap is. Some insurers will include emergency evacuation, but cap the coverage at $50,000. If you’re traveling to Guatemala or Mexico, this may be sufficient. But if you need treatment in the US, it’s easy for this coverage cap to be exceeded just by the cost of transport.

In short, the higher your coverage cap, the safer you’re likely to be. Many plans offer higher coverage caps of between $100,000 and $250,000. This is much more likely to cover the cost of both transport and treatment in case of a medical emergency.

Comparison: Healthcare and health insurance in Belize

Here’s a quick comparison of the main Belize health insurance options:

*Based on Feather’s international health insurance policy.

The right health insurance option for you will differ depending on your country of origin and your employment situation. Here’s an overview of some examples:

• QRP Retiree: You’re not entitled to public healthcare. International health insurance with strong evacuation cover is the best option. Otherwise, local private health insurance can offer effective healthcare in Belize. However, evacuation coverage is either highly limited – or not included at all.
• Digital nomad/remote worker: Like retirees, your options are restricted to private or international health insurance. Again, international policies with good evacuation cover are the safest bet.
• Short-term visitor: If you’re staying for fewer than three months, you can usually rely on travel health insurance in Belize. But you should make sure that medical evacuation is included. This is less important in other countries, so travel insurance policies may not include it as standard.
• Working/self-employed in Belize: In this case, you will likely pay social security contributions (SSCs) and get access to public healthcare. Nonetheless, available treatment is limited. Therefore, some form of additional private/international insurance is vital.

How to get insured in Belize

Here’s an overview of how to choose your health insurance policy and sign up:

• Work out what public healthcare you’re already entitled to. In practice, unless you’re working or registered as self-employed, you’re unlikely to qualify. If you do, you can use public healthcare as your baseline.
• Compare local private insurers with international health insurance vendors. Check if emergency evacuation is included and what the cost caps are if so.
• Once you’ve chosen the policy, you can usually apply online. Vendors like Feather offer fully digital applications and offer documentation in as little as a few hours.

Feather: Expert international health insurance in Belize

If you’re moving to Belize, international health insurance is virtually non-negotiable. It’s the only option that reliably includes comprehensive medical evacuation coverage. Without this, there’s no way to avoid huge costs if the worst happens.

At Feather, our goal is to make health insurance as simple, straightforward, and comprehensive as possible for expats. Here’s what that includes:

• Year-round coverage in Belize and 180 days a year in other countries
• Annual limit up to €2,500,000
• Full refund if your visa gets rejected
• Pre-existing conditions covered, subject to a short assessment
• Policies are valid until 75 years, older than most providers
• Policies start from €56.00 a month
• Fully digital applications
• English documentation available within a few hours

Want to find out more? Get a quote.