short-term medical insurance?

[afm89]

Hello,

I am coming to HK to study for a year, and I understand that once I have HKID, I would not have to worry about medical costs.

However, I have been told that it may take a while for my HKID to be sorted out, and I was advised by the university to arrange my own medical insurance for the first few months of my study in HK.

I notice that most medical insurances are for one year.
Does anyone know of anywhere that does short term?

Can I take out an insurance with HK based broker even without having an HKID?

Many thanks

[civil_servant]

Two options.

1) One Way Travel Insurance

2) Get an annual plan with monthly payments. Then cancel your insurance.

[dentarthurdent]

I don't think the advice from the university is correct. You can't legally be studying here until you have a visa in place. Once you have a visa in place then the public health system is available to you immediately (and you can get a temporary HKID card within a couple of days of arriving, not that it is the HKID card that actually defines your eligibility).

[er2]

If you enter on a student visa, you are immediately eligible for the public health system. They will check your HKID to verify that you're eligible, but that's just administrative procedure - you won't be denied service should you be run over by a car two hours after you landed. However, should you enter HK first as a tourist, for whatever reason, then you need Standard issue travel insurance for this period. Depending where you're from the credit card with which you bought the flight might already provide it though.

[chris_in_hk]

< Edit: contents deleted as see people have already covered what I was going to say >

[mrgoodkat]

Be aware that the public healthcare in HK won't cover repatriating you back to you home country in case of a serious condition though.

[HK_Katherine]

Be aware that the public healthcare in HK won't cover repatriating you back to you home country in case of a serious condition though.

But it will cover treating that condition.