Going private
Hong Kong is second only to the US on the list of the most expensive places in the world to receive private medical care. Although there are some great public hospitals in Hong Kong, the hard fact is that many of the city’s leading specialists contract their services out to private facilities. If you require surgery or come down with a serious illness, it’s only right that you would want the best medical care available.
Employee healthcare
The majority of Hong Kong expat workers receive health insurance from their employers, but these policies are normally ‘sub-limited’ and coverage is capped on a per-day or per-condition basis. Unfortunately, these limits and caps are usually grossly inadequate for those wanting to use Hong Kong’s top medical facilities, sometimes meaning that it’s cheaper for expats to travel home for private healthcare.
Pacific Prime is a Hong Kong-headquartered insurance broker specialising in global medical cover. With offices in Shanghai, Singapore, and Dubai and more than 60 insurers on its books, the company is a one-stop-shop when it comes to expat medical insurance.
Matthew Woloszuk from Pacific Prime’s expat team said, “When moving to HK, many are aware of the soaring costs of housing and schooling, but for most new arrivals, and even seasoned expats, it’s a little-known fact that Hong Kong has some of the highest private medical treatment costs in the world. This, coupled with the fact that most companies provide their expat employees with a basic local medical insurance, means that a lot of expats give little if any thought to individual or family private medical insurance.”
Policies and premiums
Most insurance brokers offer at least two types of medical cover, broken up into Standard and Comprehensive policies. A standard policy will cover you for in-patient and emergency treatments, hospital stays, surgery, home nursing and cancer treatment, while comprehensive plans usually entitle you to all the same services with additional outpatient care, as well as maternity, childbirth, dental, and emergency repatriation cover. Many policies also come with add-on modules so packages can be tailored to your specific needs.
Sheung Wan-based brokers Cooper Claridge-Ware have decades of experience in the global insurance industry and pride themselves on offering new and more sophisticated risk management techniques. With a keen focus on transparency, integrity and innovation, CCW advises expats to bear in mind that the rising cost of healthcare in Hong Kong is pushing up premiums by as much as 12percent a year.
“Whatever you’re paying now, your premiums are likely to double in a few years, eventually getting to the point where they become unaffordable,” said company co-founder Christopher Claridge-Ware. “We advise all our clients to choose very carefully the type of medical insurance they buy so they are protected from rampant increases in premiums and with age increases. Very often with insurance you only get to find out how good the broker was by the time you make a claim, and by that point, it's too late,” Christopher continued. “We offer policies that are based on more than just price.”