Best Posts in Thread: Current health insurances

PhilHealth is good to have, but let me offer a bit of first-hand advice.....If you go into the hospital, do NOT leave until you are well!! Because if you return in a few days time, they will not pay again for the same issue. My husband went into the hospital with pneumonia for a couple of days, decided he wanted to go home (against everyone's wishes). PhilHealth paid that bill (100% to my recollection), about 10,000php. He voluntarily went back, not improved, 2 days later. He ended up in ICU on a ventilator (2 weeks), and ultimately passed. This bill was 100's of 1000's php, and PhilHealth denied every bit of it since he went back before the required wait time between incidents. Read their rules and understand them. But, again, it is good to have in case of hospitalization.

 

If you have an ACR-I card (resident alien) you can avail of PhilHealth for approx P2400 per year. This does not offer a lot of protection but one very good thing is it guarantees the hospital will treat you if you have an accident of need emergency services no questions asked. That is very important in a country where if you don't have cash in hand or insurance will let you bleed to death in the emergency room hallway without treatment. If you want more comprehensive insurance Blue Cross Philippines offers health insurance. Also if you travel frequently and have a Gold Visa or Gold MasterCard and use it to pay for your flight most of them offer travel insurance free for 1 year. If you are interested in more info on same PM me. I will try to answer any questions.

 

My fiancee had Philhealth before but as they upped the quarterly price up to 600p while reducing the already crappy benefits I just didn't care anymore. If your not admitted for a serious amount of time then it becomes such a burden. Further you have to let the doctor discharge you when THEY are good and ready which is often a day or two after you felt well enough to discharge, always getting the *tomorrow* thing. Have a baby and they pay between 3-5k depending on the hospital which the average birth in a decent Philippine hospital is 20-30k. They do come in handy if need a cessarian though.

Personally I'd rather a private health insurance if I could find one that would cover us much better without getting to expensive. But Philhealth just seems so crap to me now. The lady was even in the hospital overnight when we had a motor accident as she lost consciousness briefly and was disoriented after for a bit. They did all the tests and she came out as fine but they wanted to *observe* another day or 2. To use the Philhealth we would have had to comply as well we found out yet instead just paid the extra as we would have only saved with Philhealth just so she didn't have to stay another day or two which would have likely made up the difference Philhealth would have saved anyways in new charges on our end.

 

Best to speak to them directly

PhilHealth Central Visayas at Robinsons Place, Dumaguete.
Open ten hours a day, seven days a week—Monday to Sunday, 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.—PhilHealth Express provides services such as processing of applications for membership, requests for correction of member data and requests for issuance of PhilHealth ID and Member Data Record (MDR).

Caritas Health Shield Inc.
Caritas Health Shield
CARITAS BUILDING, NORTH ROAD, NATIONAL HIGHWAY, DARO, DUMAGUETE CITY, NEGROS ORIENTAL, 6200 (035) 225-9589 or 422-9547

 

My younger son married, and so I got bumped off corporate HMO coverage as employee dependent last year. To have a separate plan of my own, in addition to free PhilHealth coverage for Filipino seniors, I surveyed these 25 IC-accredited HMOs and discovered that most HMOs in RP offer coverage only for aged <60 or <65 years old. In RP, Caritas Health Shield, Inc. is the only HMO offering coverage for ages 7 to <71 years old.

So I called them this morning to verify manner of availment - it is cashless, not reimbursement basis - which can be very convenient when you're sick and can barely PIN your ATM or safely carry sizeable cash.

It appears that, starting this year, I will be on Caritas Shield coverage - either MAX Health Care Program for 7 to < 66 years old, Supreme Health Care Program for 7 to < 66 years old, or Enhanced Core 6 Health Care Program for 7 to <71 years old. If it adds any quality assurance, Caritas Shield was a Reader's Digest Trusted Brand awardee in 2016.

 

Never had that experience using PhilHealth before. Maybe something to watch out for in the future. But I am rather hard on Doctors and Nurses after they caused a serious health problem that almost killed me by blindly listening to and doing what they recommended. It very nearly killed me. Now I question everything and I mean everything they tell me and verify what they are saying is correct before I comply.