Based upon my experience paying hospital bills for family members there, a cc with a 2k limit should cover most medical expenses. For example, I just had a 19 year old niece go to Holy Child and had a very extensive battery of tests and a few nights stay. I am thinking total costs were around 40k php, which at today's exchange rate of 48 peso to 1 usd is about $833.00. Add in surgery and costs could go up quite a lot. To fully self insure, I would guess a minimum of 10k USD, or 480,000 php would be close. For someone with many high risk factors, you may one closer to 20k usd. This brings in to question also cc rates. I have 3 with no foreign transaction fees, something everyone should have. No sense paying 3% extra if you don't have to. Interest rates are also something to look at. Compound interest on a cc can bankrupt you on super high amounts if your not careful. Your best bet is to save, save, save. Have a local account at a bank, plus one in the US. Maybe even set up a second account in the local bank just for a health savings account. Sure it will take away from your fun, but it will save you loads of trouble when you need it. The added advantage to this format is transferring money via transferwise or xoom both have less fees going directly into a bank account. If your wondering which is better, xoom or transferwise, transferwise is better for direct bank account to bank account transfers. They have a couple issues delaying payments-especially over a weekend- but they will save you a lot in the long term. If you have to transfer via credit card xoom is better. We actually had to do this not to long ago as we had just finished almost 8 months worth of upgrade work to our house in Bacong, when my wife's dad died. We didn't have enough capital left for the cows, pigs, and a few other things for the funeral, so we used a credit card knowing we could pay it off in a month or two. Xoom beat transferwise fee wise for cc transfers. Again this is all based solely on my experiences, however they are all within the last couple months.
Your numbers sound pretty good to me. For 500,000 pesos it's possible to get a lot of treatment. 1,000,000 should cover almost everything that could possibly be fix here.
It is not parochialism, it is being financially responsible. Banks in the Philippines only insure (PDIC) P500k per account holder. If a bank goes t*ts up (and they do) all of your savings over that amount are gone. It doesn't have to be a US Bank, I would assume they have similar insurance in other developed countries. I, and likely most reasonable users here, would assume that the user said US account because he is American.
'...would assume that the user said US account because he is American.'. Yes, this is the parochialism that I'm referring to, but I'll not go into detail as it may be deemed controversial.
From https://www.manilatimes.net/2021/01...lhealth-defends-contribution-increase/821696/ (I think covered in a thread before, but this could make the 17,000 pa seem small fry!): "The increase [in premiums], which was first implemented in 2020, is spread over five years ....” For 2021, PhilHealth will raise its premium rate to 3.5 percent per month from 3 percent in 2020. This means that those earning P10,000.01 to P69,999 will pay a premium rate ranging from P350 to P2449.99. Those earning P10,000 and below will pay P350 per month while those with an income of P 70,000 will pay P 2,450. In 2022, PhilHealth’s premium rate will increase to 4 percent per month for those earning up to P80,000; 4.5 percent in 2023 for those earning up to P90,000; and 5 percent in 2024 for those earning up to P100,000." So those earning 100,000 or above will have annual premiums of 60,000 by 2024. If 'earnings' are equated to 'available cash' then many expats would fall into that group.
Use some critical thinking. You are communicating on a forum with people from around the world. He wasn't directly telling YOU or anyone else to go out and open a US account. What is implied is that people should keep money in their home country's banking system for financial security and insurance purposes. It was financially sound advice. YOU had to make it about the US and whatever issue(s) you have with the US. You are the one here showing a "limited and narrow outlook". Take the information and apply it to your own financial and citizenship situation...or don't, I don't care what you do with your money. Take that sh*t elsewhere. Reply ban, your input is not needed on this thread.
1000000 would be the approx charge for a heart bypass operation in Manila. I agree, that is pretty much top of the scale. For us, plan A in such a case would be to have enough self-insurance for the emergency and immediate follow on work until you are well enough to take a flight back home, for example, to have the heart bypass. Not only does Medicare and medigap cover us there but I would feel a lot more confident going into surgery in a US hospital. But if you must do it here as in an emergency, a 20k cc limit should handle it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
If someone dies in the US but has credit obligations, no relative is legally obligated to pay anything on credit accounts that they have not signed of co-signed. They can and will come after the estate and that is an indirect way of getting survivors to “pay”. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I know someone in Davao who spent 2 million on heart surgery (about 3 years ago) - but most have to hope they never have the same level of need.
