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Major Fixed Costs of Living in Hong Kong

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  1. #11

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    First - You want to rule out getting admitted to many of the second tier hospitals. Stick with the ones named after royalty.
    Second - Look up various wait list times on the HA site to see how long you'd have to wait.
    Third - Wander into Queen Mary and walk through the general wards (no one will stop you)

    Then decide if it is good enough for you - combination of personal preferences and financial choices.

    Random e.g:

    https://www.ha.org.hk/visitor/ha_vis...tent_ID=221223

    (A family friend was given a waiting time of 4-5 months if I recall for angioplasty. And another friend was told a brain tumor removal would take about 6 months. Luckily both had good private coverage.)

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  2. #12

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    Quote Originally Posted by cendrillon:
    Thanks. This is useful. I wonder if they have a plan with a huge excess, like 1M excess just for emergencies. I'll take a look into this more.
    This post - https://geoexpat.com/forum/135/threa...ml#post3513402

    Max excess is $40K HKD or $80K HKD.
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  3. #13

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    Quote Originally Posted by cendrillon:
    That's my question, can you describe the type of cases where you would feel like the local medical system is not sufficient and where you would be glad you had private insurance?
    I had to go for a screening test for a potentially life-threatening disease. Was told I could see the doctor (same person) privately in 1-2 weeks or through the public system in 4-6 months.

    A friend recently told me her helper found a lump in her breast and has an appointment at the gov't hospital for follow up in ONE YEAR.

    Another friend has a child with developmental problems, waiting list for an appointment through the public system is 14 months.

    Other than maternity and emergencies the public system in HK is inadequate.
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  4. #14

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    RENT
    Bars
    Kid's stuff
    Holiday


  5. #15

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    My partner's mum has been in and out of local hospitals over the past few years, and has now been in hospital for about the past 3 months, being moved between Queen Elizabeth and Kowloon. A few weeks ago, they found something tangentially related to the original reason they admitted her, we decided to pay (a fairly reasonable amount) to skip the queue and get a private MRI, and they gave her a surgical date about 2 months in advance - for what my Googling suggests is a somewhat serious but not massively urgent issue.

    About the biggest complaint she's had has been the food, but overall I feel the medical care has been pretty decent. She's also had angioplasty and a hip replacement (after a fall) in public hospitals in recent years. Of course the accommodation is basic, and the nurses are overworked (and probably underpaid), but given that I don't think she's paid a cent in tax for decades, it's a pretty good deal overall.

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  6. #16

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    The problem with the public hospital is the waiting time and that you never see the same Doctor.

    I had a very heavy skull-base surgery in private hospital here in Hong Kong. After the surgery i need to do radiotherapy and Queen's Elisabeth has the best machine for it in Hong Kong. So i went the public route.
    As my sickness is very rare doctors in QE were pretty happy to see me and study it. So i could jump the queue for MRI and PET scan (had it 4 days after first appointment with doctor).
    I did 2 months of radiotherapy there and service was good.
    But for the follow up it's really annoying MRI machine are over book so your 6 month check-up often become a 8 months one and for doctor appointment it quite normal to wait 3-4 hours. Some time for nothing as they didn't get your MRI result yet so you will have to go back a week after.


  7. #17

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    I will add my recent public hospital story.

    A fellow employee suffered a (thankfully mild) stroke at home on Saturday morning. Taken to North Lantau Hospital, transferred to Princess Margaret Hospital stroke ward. I didn't hear about it until that evening and rushed over. He was in one of eight beds in a ward built for six, which in HK public hospitals is actually really good (I have previously had a friend taken to Queen Mary Hospital and put on a foldaway bed with no pillow or blanket, stuffed into a room build for four, amongst seven others).

    The staff are amazing, can't fault their level of care or competence, but doctor access to patients is an issue, as is getting any kind of medication from the pharmacy. Having had a stroke (and an MRI at North Lantau Hospital) he was due another MRI and I was told this wouldn't be done until MAYBE Monday (this being Saturday). Luckily he has private insurance so with the hospital's help (no doctor available at the time to sign off the discharge), the next day I arranged private ambulance transfer to Canossa Hospital where he was given an immediate MRI (double the normal cost as it was a Sunday) and treatment commenced. He was in hospital for seven days.

    We have very good private medical insurance and it has been used A LOT. Another case was three back operations (first two botched by one of HK's finest) which led to a bill of over $3m in total. I don't know what might have happened to him in the public system. Possibly he would have only needed the one operation but who knows when it would have been scheduled.

    And just last week, an emergency angioplasty and stent. Again, who knows when that would have been scheduled under the public system.

    There are four areas in HK which annoy me as to lack of consideration/financial support: Housing, elderly support, schools and hospitals. But that would be for another post.

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  8. #18

    If you have something rare or complex, it's probably actually better to be treated by the public system rather than the private system, simply because they tend to have the more specialist knowledge, but you need to either understand the system, be a senior civil servant or have something that they are prepared to treat quickly as otherwise there is a long long wait.

    I was diagnosed with a rare and serious but not immediately life threatening condition earlier this year which needed surgery. The surgeon I went to see under the private system, is one the best known in his field and was recommended by my family doctor. However, once I had been diagnosed, he advised me that it would be better that I was treated by a Professor of Surgery at QMH. I was referred as a private patient and have been treated quickly, with the latest techniques (I have a feeling there may be photos of my procedure doing the rounds at various conferences). The care (and the food) is the same as a public patient would have had, the speed of appointment, the private room (though not nearly as plush as in the private hospitals) and not to mention the cost have been very different.

    One downside of being treated as a private patient in a public hospital rather than a private hospital is that I have to pay for my treatment first and then obtain reimbursement through my insurer, rather than the insurer being directly billed. In my case, this involved having to pay a deposit of $165,000 upon admission which had to be settled by either credit card or cash.


  9. #19

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    Quote Originally Posted by Scousebanana:
    I was diagnosed with a rare and serious but not immediately life threatening condition earlier this year which needed surgery. The surgeon I went to see under the private system, is one the best known in his field and was recommended by my family doctor. However, once I had been diagnosed, he advised me that it would be better that I was treated by a Professor of Surgery at QMH. I was referred as a private patient and have been treated quickly, with the latest techniques (I have a feeling there may be photos of my procedure doing the rounds at various conferences). The care (and the food) is the same as a public patient would have had, the speed of appointment, the private room (though not nearly as plush as in the private hospitals) and not to mention the cost have been very different.

    One downside of being treated as a private patient in a public hospital rather than a private hospital is that I have to pay for my treatment first and then obtain reimbursement through my insurer, rather than the insurer being directly billed. In my case, this involved having to pay a deposit of $165,000 upon admission which had to be settled by either credit card or cash.
    To me this is not the "public system" as you were seen there as a private patient. Which still requires either insurance or means to pay. The question raised was, should someone moving to HK budget for health insurance and your story supports the view that the answer to that is yes.
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  10. #20

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    Quote Originally Posted by merchantms:
    To me this is not the "public system" as you were seen there as a private patient. Which still requires either insurance or means to pay. The question raised was, should someone moving to HK budget for health insurance and your story supports the view that the answer to that is yes.
    The principle issue with most public hospitals is the time you need to wait to initially see a specialist from the referral letter from your G.P. There are two ways to reduce this time if you are not happy with the date offered

    1) Get your GP to write a follow-up indicating his concern and why you should be given priority. This does work if you really are a priority case
    2) Pay to jump the queue. Find the specialist in the public hospital near you and pay to see them.

    Unfortunately I have to go every couple of months to the local Hospital for blood work and xrays. The quality of service is impressive. Usually in an out in under 35 mins. The barrage of tests provided at the public hospital was many times more than the private provider even with insurance. If you can afford the relatively small amount to jump the queue to see a specialist then it does make you question the need for private insurance. As for the food you don't have to have congee for breakfast you can have porridge.