Medical insurance in Colombia: what foreigners can buy, and what each option covers

Medical insurance in Colombia works differently depending on why you are there. A tourist, a digital nomad on a visa and a resident with a Colombian foreigner ID each have different options, and one of them, Colombia’s popular prepaid health plans, is closed to anyone outside the public system.

This guide covers what you need to enter, what visas require, how the EPS and medicina prepagada work for foreigners, and which international plans fit longer stays. Travelling for surgery? Standard plans exclude that; see travel insurance for surgery in Colombia.

01Which medical insurance fits your stay

02Is medical insurance required to enter Colombia?

No. US and Canadian citizens need no visa for stays of 90 days or less, and insurance is not on the list of entry requirements. What is required is the free Check-MIG form¹, which Migración Colombia opens 72 hours before your flight and closes one hour before². VisitorsCoverage puts it the same way: immigration does not require proof of insurance for the standard 90-day tourist entry³.

The State Department still “highly recommend[s]” buying travel insurance, and for a practical reason: hospitals and doctors in Colombia “may ask for payment upfront before admission”¹.

03What Colombian visas require

The digital nomad visa, and about ten other visa types under Resolución 5477 de 2022, require a health policy “con cobertura en el territorio nacional”: coverage in Colombia against accident, illness, maternity, disability, hospitalization, death or repatriation, for the whole time you plan to stay⁴. The Foreign Ministry does not set a minimum sum insured. Read your policy against that list before you apply; a plan that excludes maternity or repatriation doesn’t match the wording. Our digital nomad visa guide covers the rest of the application.

04The public system: joining an EPS as a foreigner

Colombia’s health system runs through insurers called EPS. Anyone who is employed, self-employed or able to pay must join the contributory regime⁵. To enroll, an adult needs a cédula de extranjería (the foreigner ID issued with longer visas) or a permit such as the PEP; the Ministry of Health accepts a passport only for children under seven⁵.

Self-employed contributors pay 12.5% for health on a base of 40% of monthly income, never below one minimum wage⁶. The 2026 minimum wage is COP 1,750,905⁷, so the lowest monthly health contribution is about COP 218,864. Visits then carry small fixed charges: in 2026 a cuota moderadora runs from about COP 5,000 to COP 52,800 depending on your income band⁸.

05Medicina prepagada: Colombia’s private plans

Medicina prepagada plans buy faster access to a private network of doctors, specialists and clinics. The large providers include Colsanitas, Sura, Coomeva and Colmédica. One legal condition decides who can have one: buying and keeping a prepaid plan requires prior enrollment in the contributory EPS regime⁹. No EPS, no prepagada.

For residents who qualify, plan prices published in 2025 for pensioners started at about COP 65,000–67,000 a month for basic plans from Sura and Colsanitas and rise steeply with age and coverage; Coomeva accepts new members up to age 79, while Colsanitas and Colmédica set no upper age limit¹⁰.

06International health plans for longer stays

Without an EPS, which covers most nomads and anyone staying a few months, the options are international plans bought abroad. Their own pages set out the limits¹¹¹²:

Every plan above covers new illness and injury, not treatment you travel for. Pre-existing conditions are limited or excluded on the cheaper tiers; SafetyWing Essential, for example, does not cover pre-existing conditions, maternity care or cancer treatment¹¹.

07What care costs without insurance

Private care in Colombia is affordable by US standards but paid upfront. A first private consultation with a specialist in Bogotá or Medellín has a median price of about COP 250,000, based on 771 prices published on Doctoralia¹³. Hospital admission is another matter: hospitals may ask for payment before admission, may not accept credit cards, and patients cover the cost of transfers between hospitals¹.

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