Costa Rica
Health & Medical Emergencies
Last verified August 15, 2026
Written for U.S. passport holders
Emergency Numbers
- Dial 911 for ambulance, police, or fire, a single unified number covering the whole country.
- 911 call-takers are predominantly Spanish-speaking, though bilingual English-Spanish responders are frequently available given how many foreign tourists call in.
- For U.S. consular emergency assistance (a detained or hospitalized American, coordinating care, notifying family), call the State Department's Overseas Citizens Services from anywhere in the world: +1-888-407-4747 (from the U.S. or Canada) or +1-202-501-4444 (from overseas). This is separate from the local emergency number and won't dispatch an ambulance itself, but it's the number that gets the U.S. government involved.
Getting Treated as a Foreigner
- Costa Rica has both a public system (Caja/CCSS) and a well-regarded private hospital network; as a tourist without CCSS enrollment, you'll generally end up at (and be billed by) a private facility, which typically expects payment or insurance verification before non-emergency treatment.
The Gotcha
Costa Rica's private hospitals (particularly in San José) are genuinely well regarded and used to treating foreign tourists, but 'well regarded' doesn't mean cheap without insurance. Travel insurance that specifically covers Costa Rica's private facilities is worth having rather than assuming the public system will simply absorb you the way it does Costa Rican residents enrolled in the CCSS system.
Sources
This page was drafted from the primary sources below. Rules change, so check the linked page directly before relying on any of this.
- Sistema de Emergencias 9-1-1 (Sistema de Emergencias 9-1-1, Costa Rica)
- Help Abroad (Overseas Citizens Services) (U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs)