NextSpring

Where you can use the health system if your passport is from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

One question, every country, with your nationality already applied. In 4 of them something is written that changes the answer for you; in the other 28 the general rule is what you get, and that is the answer rather than a gap. Every line is that country’s own record.

Where it changes for you
4
Where it does not
28
Blocs you are in
4

Where your nationality changes the answer

BarbadosVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-05

The Foreign Ministry Says You Have This; No Barbadian Instrument Confers It

reaches you through CARICOM full free movement (enhanced cooperation)

The general rule it sits on

Barbados runs its public health system through the Health Services Act, and the Act does not make access depend on immigration status. What it does is let the Minister establish health services institutions and make regulations prescribing the fees to be paid for services provided at them and the terms on which those fees are to be paid. Charges are therefore a matter of subsidiary legislation, and section 10A refers to recovery of unpaid fees under the Hospital (Fees) Regulations, 1970. Separately, every person employed in insurable employment is insured under the National Insurance and Social Security Act, with no nationality condition, and a Health Service contribution sits inside that Act. For CARICOM nationals from the three enhanced cooperation partner states the Ministry of Foreign Affairs says access to primary healthcare is on the same basis as for nationals.

BelizeVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-05

Emergency and Primary Care at a Public Facility, by Statute

reaches you through CARICOM Member States

The general rule it sits on

Belize's National Health Insurance Scheme is open to foreigners on the face of the statute: section 72 of the Social Security Act makes Belizean nationals and all persons legally resident in Belize eligible to enrol, and enrolment is a matter of producing documents establishing eligibility rather than of a contribution record. Separately, anyone in insurable employment between fourteen and sixty-five is insured under the Social Security Act itself, regardless of nationality - the test is the employment, not the passport. The third layer is the newest and the narrowest: a national of Barbados, Dominica or Saint Vincent and the Grenadines admitted under the 2026 free movement Act has a statutory entitlement to emergency and primary healthcare at public facilities without discrimination on the ground of nationality.

DominicaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-05

Contributions Made Elsewhere in the Region Count Here

reaches you through CARICOM Member States

The general rule it sits on

Dominica's social security scheme does not reimburse you for medical care; it pays the Government to provide it. Section 27(1)(g) of the Social Security Act describes medical benefit as a periodical payment to Government for the provision of medical services and supplies for insured persons - a block grant, not an individual entitlement - and no other healthcare record here holds a scheme built that way. Who is insured turns on work, not on nationality or status: everyone over sixteen and under sixty gainfully occupied in an insurable employment is insured, and the Act says nothing about citizenship or residence permits. Contributions earned in other CARICOM states count, because the CARICOM Agreement on Social Security has the force of law here. For a national of Barbados, Belize or Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, full free movement since October 2025 adds a right of access to emergency and primary health care.

Saint LuciaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-05

CARICOM Nationals Are Charged What a Saint Lucian Is Charged

reaches you through CARICOM Member States

The general rule it sits on

Saint Lucia charges by nationality and says so in the fee table. The Hospitals Regulations set an accommodation charge for a shared ward of EC$50 a day at a secondary or tertiary hospital, rising to EC$200 for an isolation unit and EC$300 for intensive care - and then a single line, "Charge to non-nationals (except CARICOM countries)", at EC$275. At a district hospital the equivalent non-national charge is EC$150. A Caribbean Community national pays what a Saint Lucian pays. Primary care is different again: a visit to the doctor's clinic at a health centre is free, with no nationality condition attached to it at all. The Regulations are old - amended by instruments of 1992, 1997 and 2020 - and the figures should be read as the published schedule rather than as what a hospital will invoice today.

Where the general rule applies to you unchanged

Nothing is recorded in these that treats a citizen of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines differently on this question, so what follows is what everyone gets.

Antigua and Barbuda

Healthcare in Antigua and Barbuda

Contribution rate in the Act:
2.5% employee plus 2.5% employer
Contribution rate the Scheme collects:
3.5% employee plus 3.5% employer
Self-employed contribution:
5% of earnings
Argentina

Public Healthcare Access

Emergency care:
Free to everyone, any status
Ordinary care, permanent residents:
Equal terms with citizens
Ordinary care, everyone else:
Insurance or prior payment
Bolivia

Access to Healthcare

Cost of the public system:
Free to those it covers
Foreigners covered on the same terms as Bolivians:
Where an international instrument and reciprocity apply
Everyone else:
Covered only within five named groups
Brazil

Access to Healthcare

Basis of access:
Universal and equal, as a right of everyone
Residence permit required:
No
Contributions required:
No
Chile

Access to Health Care and Joining FONASA

Right of access:
Equal terms with nationals
Extends to irregular status:
Yes, expressly
Public insurer:
FONASA
Colombia

Access to the Health System

Enrolment:
Compulsory for all residents
Which regime:
Contributory if you can pay, subsidised if you qualify
Where you enrol:
With an EPS
Costa Rica

The Caja Is Not Optional: Social Security as a Condition of Keeping Residency

Is CCSS affiliation compulsory for residents?:
Yes, for permanent and temporary residents alike
When it is checked:
At every renewal of the residency card
From when it must run:
From the moment residency was granted, without interruption
Cuba

Access to Healthcare

Constitutional right:
Public health, of all persons
Permanent and provisional residents:
Same footing as Cuban citizens
Non-resident foreigners:
Equated in access to health, subject to the relevant legislation
Dominican Republic

Health Cover: the Public System Follows Legal Residence, and Migration Asks for Private Insurance First

Who may be affiliated:
Dominicans and legal residents
Who the family health insurance covers:
Dominicans and foreigners with residence established here
Employer share of pension and health contributions:
70%
Ecuador

Health Cover for Foreigners in Ecuador

Emergency care:
Cannot be refused on grounds of nationality or migration status
Medical attention generally:
Cannot be blocked by irregular status or the absence of a visa
Voluntary IESS affiliation:
Open to foreigners holding an Ecuadorian identity card
El Salvador

Health Cover: a Constitutional Promise to Inhabitants, and a Contributory Scheme Tied to Employment

Who the constitutional duty names:
Inhabitants of the Republic
Free public assistance:
To the sick who lack resources
Social insurance trigger:
Employment, not nationality or residence
Grenada

Healthcare in Grenada

Surcharge for a short-stay non-citizen:
One-third on top of the scheduled fee
Residence that ends the surcharge:
3 months
Hospital fees as scheduled:
EC$5 to EC$250
Guatemala

Healthcare in Guatemala

Public health:
A constitutional right of every inhabitant
Contributory system:
IGSS, reached through employment
Who registers the worker:
The employer
Guyana

Healthcare in Guyana: a Constitutional Right for Citizens, Outside the Part a Court Can Enforce

Constitutional right to free medical attention:
Every citizen
Is it enforceable in the High Court:
Not directly. Article 153 reaches articles 138 to 151, and article 24 is outside that range
Who is insured under the National Insurance Scheme:
Every person aged sixteen or over and under sixty who is gainfully occupied in insurable employment
Haiti

Health Care in Haiti: a Constitutional Duty Owed to Citizens, and an Employer-Paid Health Card for Workers

Residents' health insurance a foreigner can join:
None found
Health card:
Compulsory within three months of hiring, at the employer's expense
Who runs the examinations:
OFATMA's medical service, exclusively
Honduras

Health Cover in Honduras

Institution:
Instituto Hondureño de Seguridad Social (IHSS)
Character:
A compulsory public service
Who registers you:
Your employer
Jamaica

Healthcare in Jamaica

Public health user fees for Jamaicans without insurance:
Abolished in 2008
Public health user fees for non-residents:
Charged
General medical visit registration:
$3,000
Mexico

Health Care in Mexico

Free public health services:
A right of everyone in the country who has no social security
Urgent care:
Free and unrestricted, whatever the migration status
Any nationality or status condition in the law:
None
Nicaragua

Healthcare in Nicaragua

Nationality test in the health law:
None
Who the law covers:
Every person, for the right to health
Who gets public treatment free:
The vulnerable population
Panama

Health Cover in Panama

Who must be insured:
Every worker in Panama, national or foreign
Irregular migration status:
Not a bar to affiliation
Not working:
Voluntary affiliation
Paraguay

Getting Healthcare in Paraguay

Cost of public health services:
Free
Medicines:
Free where they are on the national essential medicines list
Access with irregular migration status:
Cannot be refused
Peru

Access to the Public Health System

Open to foreigners:
Yes, to anyone resident in the country without other cover
Cost of SIS enrolment:
None, and no monthly payment
Means test:
None for SIS Para Todos
Saint Kitts and Nevis

Healthcare in Saint Kitts and Nevis

National health insurance:
None
Who is covered:
Anyone aged 16 to 62 in gainful employment
Employee contribution:
5 per cent of wages
Suriname

Basic Health Insurance Is Compulsory for Anyone Actually Living Here, Whatever Their Status

Who must insure:
Anyone with domicile, main residence or actual residence in Suriname
Nationality or permit condition:
None in the Act
Premium split in employment:
Fifty-fifty, and the employee's share may never exceed the employer's
The Bahamas

Health Cover in The Bahamas: a New Act, Four Commencement Notices, and Six Months of Residence

Ordinary residence:
The Bahamas as home for not less than six months before applying to register
Immigration status needed:
Citizen, or lawful resident under the Immigration Act
Also required:
Registration with the National Insurance Board and a National Insurance card
Trinidad and Tobago

Healthcare in Trinidad and Tobago

Statutory entitlement to public healthcare:
None found
Nationality or residence condition:
None stated in the Regional Health Authorities Act
Who delivers it:
Five Regional Health Authorities, each a body corporate
Uruguay

Access to the Public Health System

Open to foreigners without residency:
Yes, on a paid monthly fee
Cost of enrolling:
None
What enrolment covers:
The Plan Integral de Salud set by the Ministry of Public Health
Venezuela

Access to Healthcare in Venezuela

Who the right reaches:
All persons
Who the services reach:
All the inhabitants of the country
Principles of the public system:
Free provision, universality, integrality, equity, social integration and solidarity