Public
+ cheap, can pay with Octopus card
- no guaranteed epidural (anesthesiologists are few and can be with more urgent life threatening cases)
- limited visitation hours
Private
- expensive
- doctors will try to make it an emergency C to speed up the assembly line and charge more unless you have a OBGYN known for natural delivery
- if there are severe complications, you're getting moved to public anyway
Something else to consider. I have a friend in a "private" room at Queen Mary now. She's got an issue with her recovery..has infection risk. But due to coronavirus, they are putting other patients in her room, meaning she's exposed to more bacteria, which is not good.
Something nobody else has mentioned:
DO NOT BUY maternity from a local HK plan. They do not cover the baby from birth - typically will only accept after 15 days meaning if your baby has a congenital condition...you're SOOL and will spend the rest of your working days making insurance your top priority. Not to mention the math doesn't add up.
For international providers, you're at a loss with almost every one (you pay more in premiums than you can claim in delivery costs). However, don't be fooled as what you're really paying for is for your baby to be "born into" the policy, meaning you have the paid option to add the baby from birth as if healthy. So in your worst case scenario, you have the option to pay for insurance for the rest of your child's life as that's the lower cost option to being saddled with hospital bills. But that's not the case for local plans.
Hospital bills - don't forget the doctors fees, that's what really gets you.
All in, semiprivate room natural birth probably ~ HKD 70-80k. C section HKD 100k+.
Private, HKD 200k....if in labor on new year's day with holidays, overtime and doctor shortages? even more.
PM if you want more info, for transparency I am a broker.
You can see my other posts are factual and I never solicit.