EPS Health Insurance in Colombia
EPS is the government health insurance in Colombia that is available to everyone with a cedula (local ID), Colombian citizens as well as foreigners with a visa and cedula.
The EPS health insurance in Colombia is available to everyone who is a resident, including people that are not eligible for private health insurance due to age or pre-existing conditions.
In an EPS plan, the delivery of services is through a network of public health providers/facilities. Keep in mind that the EPS plans cover everyone. So, it means longer waiting times to see doctors and receive medical care. Also, EPS plans include dental insurance.
In addition, to see a specialist, run diagnostic exams like blood tests or x-rays or to get a surgical procedure, with an EPS plan you will need a referral from your general practitioner.
Also, family members and dependents can be added to an EPS plan. These include:
- A spouse or permanent partner
- Children under 18 years old
- Children between 18 and 25 years old, if they are financially dependent on the insured
In an EPS plan you will be assigned an IPS (Instituto Prestador de Salud), which is basically a health center, which will be your primary care location.
In addition, one thing to be careful with is that some of the EPS providers in Colombia aren’t in great financial shape. So, they are slow in paying medical providers leaving thousands of Colombians without health care services.
For example, Saludcoop EPS was in financial problems and was liquidated in 2016 and moved to the Cafesalud EPS
We recommend EPS Suramericana (EPS SURA), which is typically ranked as the number one EPS in Colombia.
Medellin Guru’s Colombian Insurance and Healthcare Articles
The Medellin Guru website has some very popular articles about Colombian insurance and healthcare services:
- Health Insurance in Colombia: How to Sign up with SURA Insurance
- Sign up for SURA EPS Insurance: A Service for Expats in Colombia
- Travel Insurance: Meets the Heath Insurance Requirement for Colombia Visas
- Auto Insurance in Colombia: A Guide to Colombian Auto Insurance
- Homeowners Insurance in Colombia: A Guide to Colombian Homeowner Insurance
- Medellin Guru Insurance Service: Providing Colombian Insurance
- Colombia has 24 of the Best Hospitals in Latin America
- Emergency Surgery: Expat Experience in Clínica León XIII in Medellín
- Healthcare Colombia: Offering Services to U.S. Veterans in Colombia
Also, we plan to publish additional articles about insurance and healthcare in Colombia .
Colombia has 24 of the Best Hospitals in Latin America
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Editors note: updated on March 28, 2022, with updated client counts.
Do you have a similar service you provide for setting up a Bancolombia bank account once you have a cedula? It seems like there’s lots of different info everywhere and going into the bank made it seem like a much more complicated process. Thanks in advance.
Sorry, no don’t have a service to help open a bank account.
FYI.. a few weeks ago i contacted them about eps. They said they only do private as there isnt money in the eps.
They now have a new service to help sign up with EPS for a fee of $125 USD, this is relatively new.
Fill out this form and they can help you – https://medellinguru.com/get-insurance-in-colombia/
I left Colombia and cannot figure out how to cancel my EPS. Will it cancel automatically if I have not payed in three months?
It was a prolonged bureaucratic torment. By the time I got signed up for EPS I was ready to go postal. This was last year. From start to finish it took three months and everything to do with customer service went further down hill after that. The right hand had no earthly idea what the left hand was doing. I was shuffled from location to location and the lines were out the door and down the street. I finally figured out how to cancel it and get the H-E double hockey sticks out of there. I met all the qualifications for the Covid vaccination and I wanted that vaccination. But after taking a taxi ride to the 3rd building I was told that they would let me know. I heard nothing so that’s when I dumped it. It was not SURA.
I told all this to a guy in our building who said that SURA was vaccinatiing patients within walking distance from my front door so I went there. The intake staff asked me if I was a member of SURA and I said no. The lady in charge apparently took pity on me and waived me right in the door. I reckon there musta been a thousand people in there getting the jab but I was in and out in about an hour. Very organized, quite professional. Needless to say, the difference between brand X and SURA was like the difference between night and day. I plan to sign up with SURA.
About a month after I went to SURA, brand X contacted me to come in for the vaccination. The news that I’d cancelled my policy six weeks previously had escaped them.