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SUS, the UBS clinic and private insurance

How healthcare works in Brazil for a foreigner: free SUS and the UBS clinic, vaccinations and the certificate, a private health plan and real prices.

Brazil has two parallel systems: the free public SUS (Sistema Único de Saúde) and private medicine with a health plan (plano de saúde). The first is open to foreigners; the second is faster and more comfortable but costs real money. Below is how to use both, from residents' accounts and the law. This is not medical advice.

Checked on 8 October 2026. Prices in the posts are as of the stated date and for Rio de Janeiro.

In short

  • The migration law guarantees a migrant access to public health services without discrimination on grounds of nationality or migration status (Lei 13.445/2017, art. 4, VIII).
  • To register at a clinic you need a passport, a CPF and proof of address.
  • Routine visits, vaccinations and basic tests go through a UBS clinic; urgent cases go to a pronto socorro.
  • A private plan protects you from queues, but it has a waiting period (carência): for childbirth it is 300 days.

SUS and the UBS clinic

A UBS (Unidade Básica de Saúde, sometimes a Centro de Saúde or Posto de Saúde) is a municipal clinic near your home. According to a doula-doctor from São Paulo, care at a UBS is free for anyone in Brazil regardless of citizenship and status. There you can see a general practitioner, a paediatrician and a dentist, get vaccinations under the national schedule, have blood drawn for basic tests, have a pregnancy monitored, and get prescriptions and referrals to specialists; some basic medicines are handed out free (post, 19.08.2025).

To register you need:

  • a passport;
  • a CPF;
  • proof of address (comprovante de residência). If you rent through Airbnb, they ask the host for confirmation; sometimes it is enough to print your address and hand it in at the desk (post, 19.08.2025, post, 13.01.2023).

The SUS card (Cartão Nacional de Saúde) is issued on your CPF; in July 2024 it was reported that it can already be obtained online (post, 25.07.2024). Check the current procedure on the DATASUS page. Emergency help for a life-threatening condition is given at a pronto socorro, not at a UBS.

Vaccinations and the international certificate

The yellow fever vaccine is given free at any SUS clinic; give your CPF. The digital certificate is generated on the ConecteSUS site through a gov.br login and takes effect 10 days after the vaccination (post, 06.04.2025). The International Certificate of Vaccination (CIVP) is free: in April 2023 an author had the vaccine at home through the Beep service (R$ 204, insurance was accepted only for some plans) and got the certificate through gov.br within a couple of hours, even though it was a weekend (post, 29.04.2023).

Children and adults are vaccinated under the national schedule: in the maternity hospital a baby gets BCG and hepatitis B (post, 14.02.2023).

A private health plan

A plan protects you from SUS queues and gives access to private hospitals. According to the @brazil_lifehacks author as of February 2023:

  • a very good policy for a family of three in Rio with the best hospitals costs about R$ 2,000–2,500 a month; per person: a child about R$ 400, a man 40+ about R$ 800, a woman 34+ about R$ 737;
  • plans differ in the set of hospitals and accommodation: the more expensive, the better the hospitals and the private room;
  • taking out a policy through a legal entity (CNPJ) gives a discount of about 40%;
  • carência, the waiting period: 24 hours from receiving the policy for emergencies, 300 days for childbirth (post, 11.02.2023).

In September 2024 the same author was paying about R$ 2,250 a month for an AMIL S750 family plan for three. When a child spent nearly a week in hospital with severe stomatitis, the plan covered a 17 m² room with its own bathroom, meals and treatment; the author separately advises having your own doctor who can come to the hospital and be recorded as the assisting physician (post, 29.09.2024).

Finding a doctor, and prices

  • The Doctoralia site lets you find a doctor on a map, read reviews, filter by insurance and book online; the author got a paediatrician the same day (post, 12.05.2023).
  • A private paediatrician in Rio in March 2025: an English-speaking one charged R$ 400, while at a clinic near home the visit cost R$ 100 and the doctor offered a choice of language (post, 04.03.2025).
  • Dentistry in Rio in November 2022: braces R$ 2,000 plus R$ 200 for each monthly adjustment, an implant R$ 2,800, a crown about R$ 1,300, treatment R$ 200–400 per session (post, 24.11.2022).

Sources

Official:

Personal experience (channels @svoibrazil, @brazil_lifehacks and @russo_no_brasil, in Russian):