After almost two years of delays, the requirement that foreign visitors to Ecuador show proof of health insurance when they enter the country has been dropped. The decision was announced Tuesday by the ministries of tourism and the interior.
Tourists to Ecuador will not be required to show proof of health insurance.
The health insurance requirement had been scheduled to go into effect in September but, according to several sources in the ministry of foreign affairs, the data base to enforce it was never developed.
The requirement was included in the 2016 Organic Law of Human Mobility but its implementation had been delayed four times since the law went into effect. “The tourism ministry has had objections to the provision from the beginning and we are pleased that it has finally been eliminated,” Tourism Minister Enrique Ponce De León said Tuesday night. “This was necessary to maintain the country’s competitiveness in the international tourism market.”
Ponce De León said the insurance requirement for the Galapagos Islands, announced last week, will still be enforced. “The Galapagos presents a unique situation and the requirement makes sense there because of a number of factors,” he said.
