What is healthcare like on Roatan, and do I need evacuation insurance?

I ask about this on the first call, and some people find it an odd question from a real estate agent. It is not. Where you live should fit your health, and the honest picture of care here decides whether Roatan fits you full time, part of the year, or as a place you visit.

Day to day, the island does fine. There are clinics, including some run by doctors who trained abroad, pharmacies where many medicines are available without the waits you may know at home, dentists, and a hospital. For a cut, an infection, a broken wrist, a bad stomach, a diving problem, you will be looked after on the island. Many owners also tell me that a simple visit here costs less and happens faster than at home, and that has been my experience too.

For anything serious, the picture changes. Heart, stroke, cancer, major surgery, a complicated pregnancy, an intensive care stay: for these, people fly. The mainland has larger hospitals in San Pedro Sula and the capital, and many Canadians and Americans prefer to go home for treatment. The question is how you get there fast when it matters, and that is what medical evacuation insurance is for. It pays for the air ambulance or the medical flight to the hospital of your choice. Most of the foreign owners I know carry it, and I would not let my own parents live here without it.

Two things to sort out before you buy. First, your provincial or state health cover: Canadians in particular should ask their province how many days a year they may be away before they lose coverage, because that number shapes how you split the year, and only your province gives the current figure. Second, your travel or expatriate medical insurance: what it covers here, what it excludes, whether it covers your existing conditions, and whether evacuation is included or a separate policy. Read the policy, not the brochure.

If you take regular medication, bring the list to a pharmacist here and ask what is available and under which name. If you have a condition that needs a specialist, ask your doctor at home, plainly, whether living a flight away from that specialist is wise. Your doctor knows; I do not, and I will not pretend to.

Then enjoy the part nobody puts in a FAQ: a lot of people get healthier here. They walk, they swim, they eat fish and fruit, they sleep. The island is good for that.