3 HUGE Fears About Moving to the Dominican Republic

There are three things I hear over and over that stop people from moving to the Dominican Republic: healthcare, banking, and safety. I shot this one raw while driving home, unedited, and walked through how my family has actually dealt with all three since moving to Punta Cana in 2022. 🤝 Need a lawyer, insurance broker, realtor, or other trusted contact in the DR? Get connected to the people I refer: https://www.jamiegruber.com/referrals 📍 Resources mentioned: DR Inner Circle: https://www.drinnercircle.com Daily DR newsletter: https://www.jamiegruber.com/newsletter Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor, lawyer, or financial advisor. This is my personal experience, not professional advice. If you use someone from my referral list, they will likely pay me a referral fee. How I think about healthcare in the DR: most of the horror stories come from the public system. As an American or Canadian moving here, you’ll most likely use private care. My family has used the private system for a lot: a gym injury, a full colonoscopy, my son’s hospital stay with dengue, my mom’s ER visit, and two years of allergy immunotherapy for our kids in Santo Domingo. In my experience it has been excellent. I also toured HOMS in Santiago, including its robotic surgery program. I’m honest about the limits too. For major orthopedic or heart surgery, I’d get opinions in both the DR and the US. I keep my US plan and a Dominican plan, and I think anyone living here, even part-time or snowbirding, should carry local coverage instead of relying on travel insurance. My biggest tip is to test the system before you move. Do your physical, a dental cleaning, or a checkup on your next visit. How I think about banking: wire holds and frozen deposits are real. The way I’ve avoided them is relationships. When we moved six figures from the sale of our Michigan house, we told our bank what was coming and why, and it cleared in about an hour. How I think about safety: of course there’s crime here, like anywhere. Where you choose to live matters a lot. The bigger safety lesson for us came from a car accident in Cabarete, where one call to our lawyer resolved a tense situation with local police. That’s why I believe a lawyer, a doctor, and a banker you can reach on WhatsApp are the three most important relationships you can build here. If you need rules and process above everything else, the DR might not be for you. It runs more like a startup than a Fortune 500 company. If you’re good at building relationships, that’s a real advantage here. 💬 Thinking about moving or investing in the DR? Join 1,400+ people living, moving, and investing here in the DR Inner Circle: https://www.drinnercircle.com 0:00 The 3 fears: healthcare, banking, safety 0:58 Public vs private healthcare 1:38 Our real medical experiences 3:04 Specialists in Santo Domingo and Santiago 4:19 Why I keep US insurance too 5:33 Orthopedics, heart, cancer: what people say 6:17 Why you should get a Dominican health plan 7:06 Banking fears 7:55 One more healthcare tip: test the system first 9:21 Banking is who you know (wire cleared in 1 hour) 10:42 Is safety overblown? 12:13 Our Cabarete car accident 13:32 Why you need a lawyer on WhatsApp 14:03 Crime happens everywhere 15:02 The DR runs on relationships 16:04 Referrals and the DR Inner Circle