My parents in the late 70s want to visit Bonaire for a month. Mon is healthy but Dad is very frail. Their insurance and Medicare coverage is only good for the US.
I wonder how much is the costa visit in emergency room, and how much it would cost per day for a hospital room, similar to semi-private in the US.
I look in IMG Website, they quoted around 300-500 USD for a month travel health insurance. Does Bonaire hospital accept IMG insurance?
Thanks you very much for your time and info.

Juni, the hospital here does not "accept" IMG insurance, the way IMG works is that you pay the bill to the hospital and IMG will reimburse you for your expenses that exceed your deductible. Emergency room services depend on what is done while you are there. My husband and I recently were both in the emergency room, we came by ambulance, we each had several x rays, injections, etc. and my husband had to stay over night and the total bill was 1,304 NAF or $746.00. He had a class III room, 3 people, no air conditioning was 240 NAF per night (approx. $135.00) the more private rooms with air conditioning are more. I hope this helps you a little bit, but remember every case is different as to treatment and what the cost would be.

Don't forget, our hospital is small, so even if you have what's called "1st or 2nd class" insurance here (entitles you to private or semi-pvt room), you'll get whatever bed is available. Here some 3rd class rooms have 6 beds; in Curacao, 16+ beds (no a/c, shared bathrm). Same system if you have to air-ambulance over to one of Curacao's hospitals; no matter how much money you have, if a pvt room's n/a, it's n/a. Good news though, is that most, if not all hospitals in CUR, and our 1 here, take all major credit cards. Costs are a fraction of what US costs would be. What you should try to find out is if IMG will cover an air-ambulance from here to Miami, if you need services that are n/a here or Curacao (last I checked, that runs $10k +). Another diff. is that here/CUR, you must take all of your own toiletries, bath towel, pj's etc. They provide the bed, sheets & pillow--but that's all.

Ruth, do they provide blankets and pillow cases for the pillows? The hospital in SJ we had to provide blankets, pillows, pillow cases, PJ's, towels, toiletries, etc.

Yes, as far as I've experienced, basic bedding is supplied. Not really much need for blankets... but mosquito repellent a good idea--rooms are completely open, no window screens, and the doors are left open for a cross breeze.

I had out-patient elbow surgery last June, here on BON. I have semi-pvt (2nd class) health insurance. No semi-pvt's available. I was in a room with 5 other women, and of the 5, one was an employee on maternity leave (bedrest), and the other was a former employee. No a/c, no TV, and there was one bathroom to be shared between us & the adjoining room (my manager's mother was in the adjoining room). It's a really small island.

Oh, and the "bell" that normally every hospital bed has, was a real bell, like an old hand-held school bell--AND, only one for the room. So if you needed to call the nurse, you'd have to tell the girl with the bell to ring it. I had my surgery at 10:30, and left the hospital at 2pm (on my own; afterall, it was my 3rd elbow surgery), telling the nurse to tell the surgeon I was fine & going home. Jan picked up Chineese from China Nobo, then got me & off we went.

All that being said: The operating room, anesthesiologist, surgeon & attending were all first rate. This same operation in the US would've cost around $15k (if nothing went wrong). Here it cost about $900.

Thanks Ruth. What if the person with the bell was asleep? Sounds a lot like camping only you don't feel well I think the most important thing to me after my experiences is that if it's clean, I'm OK with it!

Who can sleep in a hospital (w/o heavy sedation)? It's the last place you can ever rest, lest you interrupt the nurses routine of 6am temperature readings!

LOL Ruth, you're right...you get no sleep in the hospital! And your right, just as you begin to doze they come in and wake you up to take the temp and BP...lordy, I just had a flashback of the PR hospital when the BP machine began to smoke and catch on fire and the nurses were not in the least alarmed...

Sounds familiar....my last time the BP machine's dial popped off & fell on the floor. The nurses just put it back together, took my BP, then informed me it was too high for surgery. I made them go get another machine, and voila, my BP was its usual 110/70.

Ruth...LMAO...(although I'm sure you weren't at the time!)