Greetings all... just curious what the suggestions are for medical insurance are for this area. Phil Health? Pre paid cards? EXPENSIVE policies??? Appreciate any all thoughts.
The possibilities are slim, but do not forget possible insurance from your home country. Been here 6 years, have blue cross/ blue shield from the US, reimburses us for expenses here which we claim, all online. Only cuz I worked for and retired from da gummint. Not saying it's better than PH based insurance, just don't forget to check it out in your comparison, although expensive. Covered 100% of Dumaguete and Cebu cataract surgeries.......
Da gummint? Government? No concept of in network and out of network with your insurance? I currently have BC/BS.
I also have an interest in this, but as from the UK to be I the Philippines shortly not sure our government provides anything much regards this? My wife can of course have PH, unsure if I can or if it's really any good. As we get older we all carry on till it eventually goes wrong or bits fall off unfortunately, so some kind of cover seems to make good sense.
Thanks for the BC/BS thought. I have Medicare and Tricare For Life which don't do squat here... Has anyone tried the prepaid card route yet and did it do any good? I know one of the big things here is having to pay AS you enter the clinic or hospital which PhilHealth will relieve you of that problem, or so I understand. I've read that due to the lower cost of service here, a lot of people just go the PhilHealth route with a Medical Savings account on the side to cover expenses. I know it won't cover anything catastrophic but it seems to work in most cases... anyone go that route yet?
The basics of medical expenses and insurance options in the Philippines are: 1. Medical care (doctors/hospital/surgery) is a lot cheaper here (I broke my leg last year, got it fixed for about 150k) 2. Anything you might need from the pharmacy is not so cheap at all. 3. Philhealth sucks. It's better than nothing but they cover at most 40% of hospital expenses. Also, when I enquired years ago if I could enroll I was told that it's not available for foreigners. 4. Commercial private insurance is way above budget for most 60/65 plus, last time I looked Pacific Cross wanted something like 10,000 US$ a year to insure me (increasing year after year by 10% or so up to age 75, after that it gets completely prohibitively expensive). In short, better to have an emergency stash of money just in case, and pray that you won't need any really expensive surgery/treatment. Beyond that, if you can still fly to your country of origin to get that expensive treatment/surgery without having to pay for it, then good for you. If you can not, better make sure your better half has enough money to bury you.
Philhealth is available to Foreigners at P17,500 pa or P4,500 per quarter...but doesn't cover the Z pack (major heart surgery etc). As you or some one pointed out it's big plus as it gets you immediately admitted into any hospital here in an emergency...so carry your Philhealth membership card with you at all times and keep it paid up to-date (they will ask for the current payment receipt).
My program is BC/BS thru the Federal Employee Program, and has no restriction on in / out network with reimbursement for overseas expenses. Not surprised it is different from other BCBS programs, which do not cater to administration and congressional members.
