In short: Guatemala has 27 entities under “Compañías de seguros” on the Superintendencia de Bancos’ July 2026 list, from Seguros G&T and El Roble to MAPFRE, Pan-American Life and Bupa Guatemala. Of the insurers we read, only Seguros G&T publishes a health price: VivaSalud from Q190 a month (individual, ages 18-69, hospitalisation capped at Q40,000 a year). Other products set rules that matter to foreigners: PHI requires that you live permanently in Guatemala and not work or reside more than 3 months a year in the US or Canada. IGSS is compulsory if you have a Guatemalan employer, but its voluntary contribution includes no medical care. Medicare.gov says Medicare usually doesn’t cover care abroad, and Part B still costs $202.90 a month in 2026 (or more, depending on income). SafetyWing’s FAQ says Essential destinations cannot include your home country, and that Complete covers you in your country of residence.
This page is for people who live in Guatemala, or are about to. If you’re visiting for a few weeks, the question is travel insurance, and it’s covered in travel and nomad insurance for Guatemala. If you’re applying for residency and want to know whether IGM demands a policy, see health insurance for Guatemala residency. For hospitals, the public MSPAS network and what care costs, start at the healthcare guide.
The decision table
| Your situation | What exists | The rule that decides it |
|---|---|---|
| Employed by a Guatemalan company | IGSS, through your employer | Decreto 295 Art. 27: every inhabitant who takes part in producing goods or services must contribute |
| Retired, or paid from abroad, living here full time | Local private plan (G&T, Universales, the products sold through Confiansa, and others) or an international plan | The product’s own requisitos: residence, age at entry, and time spent in the US |
| Spending several months a year in the US | An international plan that covers the US, or Medicare while you’re there | PHI’s requisitos rule out working or residing more than 3 months a year in the US, Puerto Rico, the USVI or Canada |
| Worked formally in Guatemala for 12+ months, then left the job | IGSS voluntary contribution keeps your pension file going | IGSS: 12 obligatory contributions in the last 36 months; no medical care |
| US veteran with a service-connected condition | VA Foreign Medical Program | Service-connected conditions, plus the narrow cases the VA lists |
| On Medicare | Medicare works in the US; abroad only in narrow cases | medicare.gov’s travel rules (below) |
Step one: check the insurer is licensed
Insurance in Guatemala is supervised by the Superintendencia de Bancos (SIB). Its list of supervised institutions links a monthly PDF. The latest one linked on 23 September 2026 is July 2026. Its section Compañías de seguros numbers 27 entities. At least four of them carry Fianzas or Afianzadora in their names, meaning surety bonds, not health cover.
The names you’re most likely to be quoted by for health cover all appear on it:
| Company, as named on the SIB list | Health products we read on its own site (23 Sep 2026) |
|---|---|
| Seguros G&T, S. A. | VivaSalud, VivaMed, Safemed (see below) |
| Seguros El Roble, S. A. | Not read for this page |
| Seguros Universales, S. A. | MEDIC, Universales Health Plus (UH+) |
| Aseguradora Rural, S. A. | Seguro de Gastos Médicos Individual (no details published) |
| MAPFRE | Seguros Guatemala, S. A. | Not read for this page |
| Pan-American Life Insurance de Guatemala, Compañía de Seguros, S. A. | Not read for this page |
| BMI Compañía de Seguros de Guatemala, S. A. | Not read for this page |
| Bupa Guatemala, Compañía de Seguros, S. A. | Not read for this page |
| ASSA Compañía de Seguros, S. A. · Seguros Agromercantil, S. A. · Aseguradora General, S. A. | Not read for this page |
If a policy is sold to you in Guatemala by a company that is not on the list, ask the seller which licensed insurer underwrites it. An agency is not an insurer. Confiansa, for example, describes itself as Banco Industrial’s insurance agency (Agencia de Seguros de Banco Industrial), and its product pages don’t name an insurer from the SIB list as underwriter.
Local plans: what insurers publish
Guatemalan health policies are sold as seguro de gastos médicos. Here’s what each insurer’s own page said on 23 September 2026. These are the published terms, not quotes for your age or health.
Seguros G&T: the only published prices we found
VivaSalud is G&T’s entry plan. The page lists 15 consultations and/or urgent-care visits at CIAM, 3 ambulance services a year, hospitalisation up to Q40,000 a year, and ages 18 to 69, with the note Aplican restricciones (restrictions apply). Monthly prices, labelled desde (“from”):
| VivaSalud option | Monthly, as listed | Approx. USD* |
|---|---|---|
| Individual | from Q190 | ~$25 |
| Dúo | from Q380 | ~$50 |
| Familiar | from Q675 | ~$89 |
| Adulto | from Q915 | ~$120 |
*At the SIB reference rate of Q7.6256 per dollar for 21 September 2026. G&T’s page doesn’t define “Adulto” beyond the label, so ask what it covers.
G&T’s bigger plans have no published price. VivaMed comes in Plan A (Q6,500,000, annual renewable, worldwide cover), Plan B (Q5,500,000 lifetime maximum) and Plan C (Q3,500,000 lifetime maximum), with an Aetna worldwide network among its listed differentiators. Safemed is a dollar policy (en dólares), with a deductible you choose from $1,000 to $10,000 and sums of $3,000,000 (Plan A) or $2,000,000 (Plan B), annual renewable.
Products sold through Confiansa (Banco Industrial’s agency)
Three products, no prices. The requirements are where they differ, and for a foreigner they’re the part to read:
| Roblemed | Salud 360 | Premium Health Insurance (PHI) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where it covers | Guatemala, Central America and worldwide, by plan; some plans exclude Belize and Panama | Guatemala only | International: more than 5,000 US hospitals and 3,000 hospitals in 200 countries, by plan |
| Age to join | Policyholder and spouse 18-69 (cover to 99) | Policyholder 18-49 (cover to 99) | Policyholder and spouse 18-74 |
| Residence | Must live in Guatemala | Not stated; asks for a DPI copy and a utility bill | Must live permanently in Guatemala |
| Time in the US | Not stated | Not stated | No more than 3 months a year working or living in the US, Puerto Rico, the USVI or Canada |
| ID | DPI copy | DPI copy | DPI or passport, plus proof of legal residency where applicable |
| Waiting periods | Not stated | 12 months for maternity and pre-existing conditions | 4 months pre-existing, 10 months maternity, 12 months check-up, 24 months congenital |
| Other published terms | First hospitalisation for an acute condition covered at 100% in year one (new policies) | Pays 80% of emergency and hospital costs; up to 12 consultations a year; no medical exam to join | Deductibles $1,000-$20,000; ground and air ambulance up to $50,000 |
The PHI US-stay clause is quoted exactly because it catches snowbirds: “No trabajar ni residir más de 3 meses al año en EE. UU., Puerto Rico, Islas Vírgenes o Canadá”. The clause says working or residing, not visiting, and the page does not define either word. If you live or work in the States for more than three months a year, that product, as published, isn’t built for you; if your US time is visits, ask the insurer in writing how it counts them before you buy.
Confiansa agency location and contact
Confiansa lists its office at Centro Financiero Bi, 7ma Avenida 5-10, zona 4, Centro Financiero Torre 2, Nivel 7 (read 28 October 2026). Its contact section gives Monday-Friday hours of 8:00 to 17:00 and labels 2225-1330 as WhatsApp and PBX. The same page also displays PBX: 2420-3500.
Seguros Universales: MEDIC
Universales doesn’t publish a price for MEDIC. Two lines on its page matter for older applicants: Elegibilidad hasta los 65 años (you can join up to 65) and Seguro sin terminación de edad (the policy doesn’t end at a set age). Its UH+ plans list worldwide cover with coordination of benefits abroad, and a Q5,000,000 lifetime maximum (Plan 1) or annual renewable maximum (Plan 2).
IGSS: when it applies to a foreigner, and when it doesn’t
IGSS is Guatemala’s social security institute. It is not the health ministry’s public hospital network. That network, MSPAS, is explained in the healthcare guide. IGSS covers people through work.
If you have a Guatemalan employer, you’re in. Article 27 of the IGSS law (Decreto 295) says “Todos los habitantes de Guatemala que sean parte activa del proceso de producción de artículos o servicios, están obligados a contribuir al sostenimiento del régimen de Seguridad Social”. The obligation attaches to inhabitants, with no nationality condition. The Código de Migración (Art. 24) separately gives migrant workers and their beneficiary relatives the right to IGSS services, provided they are registered and pay contributions.
If you’re retired or paid from abroad, IGSS’s voluntary route is not health cover. The voluntary route IGSS publishes is Contribución Voluntaria (Acuerdo 1124 of its board). Its March 2026 FAQ sets two limits that rule out a retiree or remote worker without recent formal employment in Guatemala:
- Who can join: only affiliates who have stopped being obligatory contributors and have “12 contribuciones efectivamente pagadas al programa IVS, dentro de los últimos 36 meses calendario”. In practice that means at least a year of formal employment in Guatemala within the last three years.
- What it pays for: asked whether a voluntary contributor has the right to medical care at IGSS, IGSS answers that “los beneficios no contemplan la cobertura de servicios médicos”. It contributes to the pension programme (IVS: disability, old age and survivors) only.
Having the 12 contributions is not enough on its own: IGSS also says you must apply in the calendar year after your last contributed month (or your last day of daily subsidy). The contribution is 5.5% of your last full obligatory salary (3.67% employer share plus 1.83% worker share), paid monthly; IGSS’s current FAQ adds that if that salary was below the minimum wage, you pay 5.5% of the monthly minimum wage in force instead. You lose the right to it after three consecutive unpaid months.
We found no IGSS text that offers medical coverage to a foreign resident who has never worked for a Guatemalan employer. Treat any quote of a monthly IGSS fee “for retirees” with suspicion and ask for the IGSS resolution behind it.
International plans: Genki Native and SafetyWing
For an international plan, what you’re buying is set by the policy wording, so the useful question is how the plan treats the country you live in.
Genki Native: how it treats Guatemala and the US
Genki Native is one international plan, and Genki's rules are written around your **nationality**, not a home country you pick. Genki (Genki UG, Cologne, Germany) is the agent and the policyholder of a group insurance; the insurer is Squarelife. Genki calls Native "Long-term cover for nomads, expats, and families living abroad". The rules below come from Genki's product page and help centre, read on 25 September 2026. The help centre says they are the conditions version dated 1 September 2026, launched in late September 2026:| What Genki says | |
|---|---|
| Who can join | “people from every country, including nomads without any legal residence”; you can join up to age 55, and once covered there is no age limit or maximum length |
| Where it covers you | Every country, with no maximum time limit for staying in any country. Special rules apply only in your countries of nationality and in the USA |
| If you hold Guatemalan nationality too | Basic: full cover for up to 182 days per visit, if you spent at least 91 consecutive days outside that country before arriving. Premium: no time limit |
| The USA, including for US citizens | A medical emergency that begins within 91 days of arrival, after at least 91 consecutive days outside the USA; a 3-month waiting period; €250,000 (Basic) or €500,000 (Premium) per insurance year |
| Pre-existing conditions | A medical questionnaire; the outcome is accepted, accepted with exclusions, accepted with a higher premium, or rejected |
| Price | Genki’s one published example: Basic at €189 a month for ages 20 to 24 with no deductible. The price depends on age, Basic or Premium, and a yearly deductible of €0, €500 or €1,000 |
| Contract | One month minimum, then cancel anytime |
For a US citizen who is not also a Guatemalan national, our reading of those rules is that Guatemala falls under the general worldwide cover, and the trip home is the part with limits. Genki also says Native is not a replacement for “statutory health insurance” that may be required by law in some countries, so nothing about it changes the IGSS rules above. For a temporary stay in the US, Genki’s help centre points to buying Genki Traveler alongside Native, adding that “Genki Traveler has its own coverage rules and home-country limitations”. For a US citizen the US is Traveler’s home country, and there Genki’s help centre limits Traveler to medical emergencies that start within 6 weeks of arrival (7 days on the “Worldwide (limited in USA/Canada)” option), after at least 4 weeks outside the home country.
For Native’s USA cover, Genki’s help centre adds that coverage of a US emergency continues until you are fit to travel, plus the following 10 days (read 28 October 2026).
The Genki link above is a referral link: we may earn a commission if you buy. See our disclosure.
SafetyWing: how it treats your country of residence
SafetyWing is a second example, and its FAQ answers that question directly. SafetyWing’s Nomad Insurance comes in two plans. The quoted wording and the prices below are SafetyWing’s own (page, FAQ and price calculator, read on 23 September 2026); the note that Guatemala is not on its list is our reading of that list:
| Essential | Complete | |
|---|---|---|
| SafetyWing’s description | “Travel medical insurance” | “Full health insurance with extra travel protections” |
| Your country of residence | Destinations cannot include “your home country (where you principally reside and receive mail)” | “You are covered in your country of residence and anywhere you travel, with the exception of any country or area that is sanctioned” |
| Age to sign up | 14 days to 69 years | 18 to 64 |
| Residents it cannot cover | n/a | A named list including the USA and its territories and Canada; Guatemala is not on that list |
| Commitment | “You can cancel your Essential plan subscription any time for any reason” | “Complete plans are a 12-month commitment” |
| Price, ages 18-39 | US$62.72 per 4 weeks | US$177.50 per month |
| Price, ages 50-59 | US$161.28 per 4 weeks | US$380.50 per month |
| Price, ages 60-69 (Essential) / 60-64 (Complete) | US$218.96 per 4 weeks | US$681.50 per month |
SafetyWing also states that Essential “does not cover pre-existing conditions, maternity care or cancer treatment”. Read the plan wording against your own situation. We don’t advise on which plan to choose.
The SafetyWing link above is a referral link: we may earn a commission if you buy. See our disclosure.
SafetyWing FAQ prices and cancellation windows
SafetyWing’s FAQ lists these prices (read 31 October 2026):
| Plan | FAQ price | Age band |
|---|---|---|
| Essential | US$62.72 every 4 weeks | 10-39 years |
| Complete | US$177.50 every month | 18-39 |
These FAQ figures now match SafetyWing’s Nomad Insurance page (both checked 31 October 2026): US$62.72 per 4 weeks for Essential and US$177.50 per month for Complete in the age bands above. The FAQ adds that prices increase with age and that its price calculator gives a quote for your specific needs.
For Complete, SafetyWing says cancellation can be requested within the first 15 days after coverage starts or renews. Mid-year cancellation requires a qualifying life event.
Medicare and VA: what the US programmes say about living abroad
Medicare. Medicare’s own page on travel says “Medicare usually doesn’t cover health care while you’re traveling outside the U.S. but there are some exceptions”. The exceptions it lists are an emergency in the US when a foreign hospital is closer, travel through Canada between Alaska and another state, living in the US near a closer foreign hospital, and cruise ships in or within 6 hours of a US port. None of them describes living in Guatemala. The same page says “Medicare drug plans don’t cover prescription drugs you buy outside the U.S.”, and that Medigap policies may cover emergency care when you travel outside the US.
Part B keeps billing while you’re away. Medicare’s cost page lists the 2026 Part B premium at $202.90 a month (or higher depending on your income), which, it says, you pay each month even if you get no Part B-covered services. It also says a late-enrolment penalty lasts for as long as you have Part B. Whether to keep Part B is a personal decision. The mechanics are in our healthcare transition guide.
VA Foreign Medical Program. The VA says “If you’re a Veteran who gets medical care outside the U.S. for a service-connected condition, we may cover the cost of your care”, and “You can choose any licensed healthcare provider in the foreign country where you live or travel”. You’re already eligible if you need care abroad for a VA-rated, service-connected disability. Beyond that, the VA lists only narrow cases: conditions it determines aggravate a service-connected disability, and care within its VR&E programme. How to file, what it excludes and how VA pays you when your bank account is in Guatemala: VA Foreign Medical Program in Guatemala. Military retirees have a separate route, where TRICARE pays first abroad and Medicare Part B must be kept: TRICARE in Guatemala.
What to ask before you sign
- Is the insurer on the SIB list? If you’re buying through an agency or broker, ask who underwrites the policy.
- What does the requisitos line say about residence and nationality? Do you need a DPI, or will a passport plus residency proof do?
- How many months a year can I spend outside Guatemala, and in the US specifically?
- What are the waiting periods for pre-existing conditions and maternity?
- Is the sum insured annual renewable or a lifetime maximum? G&T’s VivaMed plans use both.
- Is there a maximum age to join, and does cover end at an age? Universales: join up to 65, no end age.
- Does it pay the hospital directly, or do you pay and claim?
Related pages
- Healthcare in Guatemala: MSPAS, IGSS and private hospitals
- Healthcare for retirees in Guatemala
- Travel and nomad insurance for Guatemala
- Medicare on a trip to Guatemala · TRICARE in Guatemala · VA Foreign Medical Program
- Health insurance for Guatemala residency: what IGM requires
- Canadian provincial health cover while in Guatemala
- Bringing prescription medication to Guatemala
- Hospitals in Guatemala City
- Home and earthquake insurance · Car insurance
- Moving from the USA hub
Sources
All read 23 September 2026, except the Genki pages, read 25 September 2026.
- Superintendencia de Bancos: Lista de Instituciones Supervisadas, July 2026 PDF, section Compañías de seguros
- Seguros G&T Continental: Gastos Médicos
- Confiansa (Banco Industrial): Gastos Médicos, covering Roblemed, Salud 360 and Premium Health Insurance
- Seguros Universales: Gastos Médicos Individual / Familiar
- IGSS: Ley Orgánica, Decreto 295 (Art. 27); Contribución Voluntaria FAQ, 16 March 2026; IGSS voluntary-contribution page; Contribución Voluntaria FAQ page (minimum-wage floor, read 24 September 2026)
- Código de Migración, Decreto 44-2016, Art. 24
- SafetyWing: Nomad Insurance, page text, FAQ and pricing calculator
- Genki Native product page, and Genki’s help centre articles Where am I covered with Genki Native?, Country of nationality coverage and USA & Canada coverage, read 25 September 2026
- Medicare.gov: Travel outside the U.S. and Medicare costs
- VA: Foreign Medical Program
- SafetyWing: Nomad Insurance FAQ, read 28 October 2026
Spanish quotations are reproduced as published by the insurers and institutions named.
