First Doctor Visit Abroad: Checklist for 8 Countries (2026)

Back home, the first doctor visit is an insurance card and a clipboard. Abroad, there's usually a step before it. In Portugal, turn up at the health center without a Portuguese tax number on file and the system treats you as a paying patient. In Mexico's private hospitals, the bill usually comes before the care.

This checklist answers four questions for eight countries: do you have to register somewhere first, do you pay at the desk, can you go straight to a specialist, and how do prescriptions work. One page per country, with what to carry and the emergency numbers, all with tick boxes.

Then a page on bringing your own medicine (Thailand allows 30 days of an ordinary prescription drug, Mexico wants a doctor's letter in Spanish, Panama caps it at six months), and a fill-in sheet for your doctor, your clinic and your medicines. Every rule links to the official page it came from. Dollar figures use the European Central Bank rate of October 16, 2026.