#854 – The Expat Files: Healthcare, Immigration, and Solar Power in Latin America

Automatically transcribed from the original recording; names and wording may contain errors.

[00:00] South of the border down Mexico way That's where I fell in love when the stars above came out to play and now I wonder Hello there all you ex-pat wannabes. I'm Johnny Mueller and you're listening to the expat files living in Latin America The show that tells you just what it's like to live work play and or retire down here in Latin America It's a mix of the good the bad the ugly and the great and it's all right here. So let's get started All right today. We'll be going off the grid and solar again This would be part six of our continuing saga on how expats and gringos get the hell off the grid Permanently or at least as much as they possibly can but first let's talk about another favorite subject of gringos and expats health care

[00:48] Here in Latin America. It's very important once you get down here to have good doctors clinics and hospitals, right? Now you always hear me say those national health care systems in Latin America and every country's got one Well, no matter what good things you may have heard about them There's always had an order of magnitude more bad than good that some people will never tell you about I mean, come on, isn't it a great PR lure for a country to say? Hey, come on down you gringos a nice pass We know you've got money and resources and create jobs and such We know that most of you who come down are mature older adults A lot of you who are on a pension or social security and such so medical costs and treatments are a big concern for you You're looking for good but cheap health care who isn't, you know I've seen so many glossy pamphlets in Latin government bureau tourist offices saying something like

[01:35] Gringo amigo have we got a deal for you. Come on down and we'll sign me up with our national health care system It's cheap. It covers everything and they've got offices doctors and hospitals in every city Well, you hear that kind of babble and see those pamphlets coming out of government offices in Mexico, Costa Rica, Colombia Ecuador sometimes even in English all saying pretty much the same thing and Targeted towards the gringos and expats they see filtering in Come on down amigos and take advantage of our cheap and excellent national health care system Well, you know, they're half right in one respect. It's true. It's not exactly cheap But man, it will not put a dent in your pocketbook The point is Latin American governments like governments everywhere are bold-faced liars. Yeah bold-faced not bald-faced

[02:25] You know I had an English teacher way back one who said if you tell a lie with a bold face people are more likely to believe it Makes sense more sense than a bald-faced liar would anyway in almost every case Latin American national health care systems Are beyond hit-and-miss practically medieval like though they will remodel them once in a while and bring them up to snuff That's when they do the photo ops then they're good for a while a year or two Shortly thereafter the money runs out or gets stolen. They go bankrupt then sin Virgo Enzo without a hint of embarrassment they're back to telling the doctors to bring their own gloves needles and disposables Think I'm exaggerating. Well at my expat insider seminars. I always show this slide That's from a government hospital is a sign in the doctor's lounge that says

[03:13] Please bring your own syringes gloves and disposables because we ran out That's an actual sign in the doctor's lounge of a big national health care hospital That's no fluke either and to jam that point home even further. I want to read something to you I'd like to thank Mike one of my expat insider seminar alumni who sent me this article from Mexican News Daily Title of the headline of the 13 ambulances assigned to Mexico's biggest national health care hospital Only two of them have gasoline really long title, but there you have it. All right. I'll read on it says Mexico's bankrupt health care service is not reimbursing ambulance drivers for the gas They purchase out of their own pockets It goes on to say nearly all of the ambulances at Mexico City Hospital for government employees are out of service

[04:05] You'll see perfectly good ambulances parked outside Dario Fernandez general hospital and they won't be moving anytime soon They're dead in the water according to the drivers who are requesting anonymity Furthermore sources reveal the driver's license renewals are frequently delayed for ambulance drivers whose papers must be in order and travel allowances are never reimbursed Said one driver who was to remain anonymous before there was a mileage chart that we would check That's how we knew what we were being reimbursed per trip But they changed it on us and now in theory they give us a travel allowance for every trip But in the last six months, we have paid money out of our own pockets for gas food, etc And no one's been reimbursed for anything not for six months

[04:53] However, the drivers say the lack of gasoline is not the only problem nor the only reason for the vehicles Being parked and immovable drivers are saying their papers and licenses are not up to date many expired Though the national health care system ISST is supposed to pay for those expenses Then the divers say we can't risk going on emergency calls without our papers in order in case we get an accident or pulled over By the police if there's an accident Nobody's gonna back us up and we'll have to pay so we just don't take the chance Then it says when the finance director for the national health care agency in Mexico was contacted He revealed that the entire Mexican national health care system is essentially bankrupt and will run completely out of cash by July

[05:39] 2019 then what well, no one knows and no one's talking about it Oh, and this is important when you get private health care insurance in Latin America They'll always include some kind of ambulance service That's part of the deal and that's a good thing a very good thing meaning private not public ambulance service And you'll notice when you're down here as an ambulance passes You'll see kind of a 911 system to might not be 911 But there'll be an emergency ambulance number and when you call that believe it or not You'll actually get through because cell service is great down here and those private ambulance companies are hooked into the system, too So they're gonna be the first responders because they get paid They're working for an insurance company or a big private hospital group yet another great reason to get private health care insurance here in Latin America

[06:27] Though I know there are some gringos and expats especially the ones in their 20s and 30s. We think they're gonna live forever They're invincible. They won't get health care insurance and when something happens since they're going raw They're paying out-of-pocket, but still even if you don't have insurance, it's dirt cheap You pay a quarter to a fifth of what you'd be paying up in the states The question always is which hospitals clinics and doctors are good ones. Which ones should you be checking out? You don't want to do that after you've stepped in a pothole fallen down the stairs or been hit by a tuk-tuk And then you have to ask yourself which ambulance service might you want to use? Well, if you're on a private insurance plan, all that will be taken care of for you so by all means try to get yourself some private medical insurance and

[07:12] Usually a gringo or expat under 60 years old should be able to pick up a really good health plan For around a hundred bucks a month. And if you're under 50 probably 75 bucks a month now some private plans will take you from 65 to 70 years old too You just have to check those out with a broker Of course We'll be discussing that and much more at the expat insider seminar in July and when you're there We can even help you hone in on a couple of plans for yourself if that's what you're interested in Alright enough said about that Let's talk just a minute or two about some other hot news topics that will surely make you think about what's happening with all the immigration Problems you're having up in the states right now This comes out of Peru which has a population of 32 million and the second biggest population of Venezuelan immigrants after Colombia now considering Peru only has 32 million people there are

[08:03] 700,000 Venezuelans who came to Peru just in the past year and Peruvian officials are saying that about 1 in 20 people about 5% of the people in Peru are Venezuelans in the country illegally because their temporary visas have lapsed or they snuck in illegally or they're simply Venezuelanos without a permanent visa and now after extending a helping hand with the good neighbor policy Peruvians are getting really pissed off The majority will tell you Venezuelans have overstayed their welcome like any visitor or family member you welcome into your house after a while They get on your nurse and you just want them to get the hell out look at Julian Assange I know he's an extreme case But everyone who visited him at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London said in time

[08:50] He changed from a well-respected well-groomed guy to a kind of a stinky slovenly Depressed couch potato aside from that I actually think the guys are kind of a hero myself But I wouldn't want him to camp out my guest room. Am I digressing? I thought so anyway back to Latin America in this article We've got Peru's interior minister Carlos Moran saying many Venezuelans are now being expelled one big reason is that many have been providing false sworn declarations on the residency applications For example saying they have no criminal record when they do saying they've had no DDY's and they do claiming they have relatives in Peru to stay with and they don't claiming to be professionals with degrees and titles that they don't have claiming resources and bank accounts in Peru that turn out to be

[09:37] non-existent Problem is so many tens of thousands of Venezuelans have been flooding in that it's impossible to bet everyone's entrance in immigration documents Well, just two days ago interior minister Moran told reporters that as the government we must protect our own citizens first Hmm their own citizens first. What a novel concept Then he said these people Say what Wow, can you believe that he called them these people? Why saying that's a big no-no if you're up in the States the SJW is a pick at your house Maybe even whoop your ass. Anyway, the Peruvian interior minister Why not to say these Venezuelans who have entered our country lying falsifying information and with criminal records

[10:24] That's a threat to our own citizens and we must deport them Turns out Moran's press conference on Monday followed reports in local media's that in recent months Venezuelan nationals have been involved in criminal rackets gang activity car theft kidnappings for ransom Kidnapping for ransom. Is there any other kind? Anyway, he goes on to say certain Venezuelans are involved in drug cartel activities Drug-related crimes weapons crimes, etc. Etc. Oh and then he says get this Unfortunately, Venezuelan migrants have ended up straining our public services You think where have you heard that before? Then the article says as of April 2019 Polls have indicated that 67 percent of Peruvians now view Venezuelan immigration as negative for the country

[11:16] Compared with polling results of February 2018 just over a year ago Only 43 percent of Peruvians viewed the Venezuelan influx as negative with crime and delinquency among the Venezuelans listed as the top concern and major fears and Now I'll throw in my two centavos speaking of older polls Done one to three years ago when the Venezuelan influx wasn't so great It seemed as if every single Latin American person I spoke to except the very very highly educated and people who own their own businesses Absolutely hated Donald Trump for the usual reasons his anti-immigration stance wanting to build the wall and actually enforce Immigration policies that have existed for years and years but other presidents just didn't take too seriously

[12:03] Well, you know, it's a funny thing just the other day I was in an uber the uber driver was from the Dominican Republic and as usual I'm usually way off the grangle tourist trail and I'll strike up a conversation with these guys in Spanish, especially on a long haul You know what? This guy told me every once in a while. He's talking to someone he picked up at the airport from Mexico Costa Rica Latinos from different countries in Latin America and Inevitably Trump's name will come up and he told me he's gotten into a number of Arguments with passengers who diss Trump all through the ride and then he'll say, you know What the Dominican Republic needs a Donald Trump first they'll laugh thinking it's a joke then he'll say no joke We really need our own Latin Donald Trump then the passenger will blurt out What are you saying and the uber driver will tell him the exact same thing is happening in a Dominican Republic as is happening in

[12:56] The US only with us. He says it's not the poor uneducated Mexicans or Guatemalans or Hondurans Sneaking in and bringing their bad habits with them. It's that dirt for uneducated Haitians sneaking in the Dominican Republic and bringing their bad habits with Them because you see the DR is about four times as wealthy as Haiti and they've got a porous border sound familiar Then he'd explain if we had our own Latino version of Donald Trump There'd be a strictly enforced immigration policy that Haitians would have to have a reason or education To come to my country and crime and delinquency would go way down. He said just read the crime stats They're in the papers all the time Haitians commit three times as many crimes per capita than our own Dominican population Then the uber driver tells me that after he lays those facts on his passenger a businessman from Panama

[13:46] Argentina Mexico, wherever there's always a kind of a pregnant pause in silence and they say is that right? I didn't know that tienes Rasson you have good reason there or you might be right That's because you see the uber driver went on to say You know countries like Panama Costa Rica Guatemala Mexico Argentina have never had the problem of an influx of poor uneducated people Like we have in the Dominican Republic and the gringos have up in the United States And then he said surprise surprise the mood in certain countries has changed in the last year now When he picks up someone who's just flown in from Colombia or from Peru When the subject comes around to the US immigration and Donald Trump

[14:34] Guess what the majority of Latinos from those countries are saying the same thing We need a Latino version of Donald Trump in our country In other words, we need a guy who will say Peru first or Argentina first or Panama first Why because of the Venezuelan problem and they have that opinion knowing that Venezuelanos speak their language and most of them are more educated than the people in the countries. They're fleeing to Yet the uber guy admitted that when he had that same conversation just a few years ago With passengers from Colombia and Peru and Panama. They'd say they absolutely despise Donald Trump now ask for me Johnny I read a lot of Latino op-ed pieces in Spanish, of course And day after day, you see more and more negative articles coming out the author's lamenting the fact that so many

[15:25] Venezuelanos have been let into their countries. The locals are getting really pissed off and remember Those are countries that do not have a welfare system They don't have 64 giveaway programs for the poor and needy like they do up in the states if the locals in the DR Colombia and Peru are pissed off now Imagine how they feel if they had a US style really massive social welfare system. They all could hook into Anyway, I just thought you like to know what the vibe is on the street Which just goes to show if you want to low down in any particular Latin country Ask your uber driver and read some of the local op-ed pieces Of course, if you don't speak Spanish your SOL by the way about those op-ed pieces It's pretty much a guarantee you're never gonna see those kind of articles reprinted up in the states Not the ones where people are saying we need a Latin Donald Trump

[16:11] That's for sure And you know Although in those particular Latin countries where illegals are flooding in daily where you'll hear even the man on the street talking that way you're not gonna see those articles reprinted up in the states anytime soon because they're way too on PC and Classes and racist and so offensive to all those snowflakes up in that great Latino barrio of California and all the other sanctuary cities yet as one Greek philosopher once said There's nothing more painful than being stung by the truth. Hmm. Wish I'd have said that hey, I just did Alright, let's talk some more about gringles going solar going off the grid starting with this email from Canadian Jean Luke who does quite a bit of hanging in Mexico. He says Johnny. Thanks a lot for the shows about going off the grid

[16:59] I listened to some of your previous ones on the subject too, and I love your insight But why bother with all the hassle making your own solar system when you can have free electricity without even lifting a finger? Well almost You need just six inches of heavy-gauge wire Here's how just simply stop paying your electric bill completely and wait for a few months They'll come over and pull your meter off and voila See the attached picture Please to see how you can jump the meter with two wires and get free electricity forever Almost in other words just running the juice directly from the pole into the house without a meter though with anyone from the electric company It's pretty obvious because the meters gone and he's placed a big-ass jumper there and believe me

[17:45] You don't want to try this at home if you do and you know a lot of Mexicans are doing it How do you think I got this photo? Make sure all your breakers are switched off in your house Or it will be a gigantic spark when you put those bypass jumpers in even so any kind of pirate patch like this is not recommended for the faint of heart then John Luke says if the electric company finally Realizes what happened that you've been stealing power. They'll cut your wire at the pole. Then what do you do? Well, you do what every street taco vendor guy does at sundown Run a wire to the post and steal it by shimmying up and connecting it from on high Aha a dangerous hack to be sure but it works by the way me Johnny here If you want to copy that picture and I've got a picture of a guy shimming up a pole doing it to Shoot me an email the expat files at gmail.com then John Luke says just fooling around Johnny

[18:36] You know that but I see this all the time poverty is the mother of simple inventions Alright, thanks for that John Luke now for more on the business of solar where we last left off with solar power stuff We're talking about having to have around five thousand watts of solar panels on your roof now here in Latin America Most roofs are flat and made out of concrete concrete roofs By the way are the best type of roof to fasten solar panels to because well with hurricanes earthquakes Gigantic storms, whatever when fastened correctly to a concrete roof Your solar panels are not gonna lift up fly away or get damaged unless of course a tree or your neighbor's house falls on them Or something then all bets are off now If you look at any of the photos or YouTube videos of the recent big hurricane in Puerto Rico

[19:23] You'll see lots of roofs are gone That's what happens to roofs that are mostly metal and fiberglass the cheap way out People with concrete roofs did not have that kind of problem Luckily most gringles in Latin America who build or buy a house have a concrete roof But not so fast you have to know a few things and here's some tips to mount solar panels on a concrete roof Tip number one if you've got a flat roof never mount your solar panels completely flat on that roof now Of course the first step is to lay down the metal rails and racking They're bolted into the roof usually by a professional installer or your 14 year old cleaning lady Just checking to see if you're awake this stuff can get boring, you know Especially for you female listeners who'd much rather hear about the latest Antonio Banderas sighting. Was that sexist?

[20:11] So what when you might be wondering how rough and tough solar panel really is I mean things fall on them all the time Can I take it not just bird poop either? Well, what you probably didn't know is that solar panels are tested by dropping a certain size steel ball bearing from a distance of about A meter that's a little over three feet The fact is if you look at solar panel installations 10 15 even 20 years ago You rarely see any damage and he cracks it all But again, you don't want to mount them directly flat on a concrete roof Even if you're honored near the equator like in Ecuador For example where the Sun is directly overhead. You have to tilt those panels at least seven degrees Can you guess why because they all have an aluminum rim around them that acts like a little raised window frame So it collects water and dust but they're self-cleaning if they've got a little tilt on them. Just seven degrees

[21:01] It's enough. I know I know some of you are thinking that most solar panels are tilted anyway tilted towards the Sun depending on your Latitude in fact, you could go to the internet and look that up for wherever you are in a split second But you know the closer you get to the equator the smaller the angle in fact I know an engineer who worked for Apple He said one of the dirty little secrets they didn't talk about much was the fact that Apple put together a big solar Installation at one of their development facilities on a flat roof mounted flat as the horizon and after three months believe it or not The solar power degraded by 30 percent. So how'd they fix it? Well, they couldn't tear all that stuff down and redo it too many hundreds if not thousands of solar panels So they hired a perpetual cleaning crew. It was a million dollar mistake. I wonder if anyone got fired

[21:48] The all right now Let's talk about guarantees on the parts of your solar system now Of course, everyone wants the longest guarantee possible as long as the company's still around and honors it and with lithium-ion batteries And solar panels, there are some industry standard guarantees. Everyone kind of sticks to these days Let's take solar panels. Let's make the numbers easy and say you have a 400 watt panel The average guarantee works like this after 10 years. They guarantee it'll be putting out 90% of its rated full value So 400 times 0.9 90% it'll drop to no less than 360 watts in 10 years But with panels, there's a double guarantee. They also have a 25 year guarantee So when you buy a panel, you'll get two guarantees a 10-year and a 25 the 25 year guarantee

[22:37] Says that your panel will put out no less than 80 percent of its full rated wattage when it's 25 years old So again, if you do the numbers on a 400 watt panel 80 percent of that that means it's guaranteed to put out no less Than 320 watts at the 25 year mark. So in the end to us when goes the next bet What's that all about? What does it mean? And can you hold them to it? More importantly is the company or even you and I gonna be around in 25 years? Well, here it is in a nutshell. You shouldn't give one hot damn about the guarantees Why sure the promises they make in those guarantees are gonna hold up But in just five years you wait will have certainly gone through another solar generation They'll be so cheap and so small you won't care about those old panels You bought five years ago and after ten years you probably have already tossed them and are using the tiny

[23:26] Super-efficient ones that don't look like panels at all You'll see solar material incorporated right into the roofing material and on the hoods roofs and trunks of your electric cars and in 25 years with an 80 percent guarantee on those panels who cares by then I'm sure they'll have clothes made out of some kind of solar fabric and who knows maybe even Tombstones made out of solar material so you could have nighttime events in the cemetery bottom line Don't worry about guarantees on solar panels. Oh and as far as prognosticating How about this? I happen to know a guy in Germany an engineer who makes high-powered solar panels that are so thin They roll up like a roll of saran wrap like he said pretty soon We'll be making solar wallpaper and get this solar paint even better

[24:11] He sent me a link to a friend of his who works at another company in Germany. Yeah, Germany again Yeah, yeah again vita alim al well, they've got a company in fact more than one company in Germany that are producing solar Persian blinds So if you live in an apartment complex and have no access to a roof and don't have a lawn or don't have a balcony You just buy these window shades and get this they're self-tracking if you put them in the tracking mode The louvers will actually tilt to the best solar tracking angle now admittedly those things are expensive damn expensive New tech always starts out that way just remember in a couple of years They'll be K mark cheap and you won't care if you're on the fifth floor of a 20-story high-rise Yep, you two can have solar power, but what about the heart of your solar power setup?

[24:57] That's your combined lithium-ion battery pack inverter charger and control unit last time We talked about how it's an all-in-one unit now Well as it turns out the guarantees for those things are all over the place some of the good ones the best ones Won't give you a guarantee based on years They'll give you a guarantee based on the total charge and discharge cycles of the battery for example One of the standard guarantees or warranty is they'll give you a five or ten year guarantee on the electronics in the unit Plus a separate guarantee for the lithium-ion batteries usually a 3,000 charge discharge cycle So beware of battery guarantees that say 500 or a thousand discharge cycles go for 3,000 discharge cycles at least So anyway when you reach whatever limit it's guaranteed to charge at least to the 80% of maximum value rating

[25:45] So then how long will your battery be good for how long will it last? Well, if you plan your system, right probably 15 to 20 years, but then again in the next 10 Maybe even five years is gonna be another gigantic evolution with batteries in the end You shouldn't put a lot of weight in a guarantee though with a long guarantee That means they've used heavy-duty commercial grade electronics, which is a very good thing Especially if you're counting on your system during a calamity or grid down Which is highly possible even probable now You heard me mentioned that lithium-ion battery guarantees are all over the place And that's kind of a mystery to me since all the major solar power outfits use the same batteries from the top five or six Manufacturers either coming from Panasonic LG

[26:30] Toshiba Tesla and a couple of others one of them being that massive Chinese bus company BYD Alright, we're getting towards the end of the show now But there's a lot more to say about setting up your own solar power system in Latin America I hope I'm not boring the pants off you but I've been getting a Continuous string of emails from people asking me how to set up their own once they've got that plan B in action Oh and speaking of plan B's and drinking from the fire hose. Don't forget. I've got that July 2019 Exped insider seminar coming up yearly bridge specials are still in effect So you'll save $500 off the regular price, but the time is limited on that Just go to www.thenewexped.com and click on Johnny's seminar link while you're there You'll find out how to kill two birds with one stone that is apply for your permanent or temporary

[27:19] Residency in Guatemala at the same time you're at the seminar and you'll learn all about the famous John Galt post seminar trip, too Just go to www.thenewexped.com and click on the seminar link You've been listening to the Exped files living in Latin America If you need some help with your own plan B, you can schedule a one-on-one phone call with me But first download my free plan B questionnaire at www.thenewexped.com Better yet if you want to get your plan B going from right up there in the States Just sign up for my 9-hour Exped essentials course get the perfect plan B blueprint by going to the expat files.com Academy. Los bemos