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Maternity Insurance?

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  1. #11

    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Posts
    12

    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.

    jgl and bobly like this.

  2. #12

    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Posts
    11,884
    Original Post Deleted
    The emergency doesn't become an emergency until at least partway through the delivery. You still end up starting at the private hospital, with expensive facilities medical staff time.

    You might not get charged for the 3-5 days stay, but that is not the expensive part of the process.
    hongkong7 likes this.

  3. #13

    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Hong Kong
    Posts
    15,557

    One thing that slightly annoys me is that people always comment on how cheap the public system is and how you can pay be Octopus!!! And yes it is cheap. But if you were in the UK or another Western European country you wouldn't even pay on Octopus, there would be ZERO charge.

    Don't know how it is in Oz, Singapore, Canada or other developed countries (apart from the US).

    I guess everyone is so focused on comparing things to the US that the forget that in the majority of the developed world things like childbirth are provided by the public system at little or no cost.

    dossier likes this.

  4. #14

    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Posts
    11,884

    It's close enough to zero as to be effectively the same thing, for most people on this board. I'm not convinced that childbirth should be free, either.

    I don't think that you can pay by octopus anymore though. That's a pity. The hosptial bill with a payment via a travel card would have made a good momento.


  5. #15

    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Hong Kong
    Posts
    15,557
    Quote Originally Posted by jgl:
    It's close enough to zero as to be effectively the same thing, for most people on this board. I'm not convinced that childbirth should be free, either.

    I don't think that you can pay by octopus anymore though. That's a pity. The hosptial bill with a payment via a travel card would have made a good momento.
    I was able to pay by Octopus in 2018. Don't know if things have changed much since then.
    jgl likes this.

  6. #16

    Join Date
    Oct 2006
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    Hong Kong
    Posts
    15,557
    Original Post Deleted
    We pay our hidden taxes of rent here. Its all swings and roundabouts.

  7. #17

    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    Wrong side of the door to hell
    Posts
    6,079

    This is a just-published article about childbirth in HK, with 1st hand experiences from women (rather than the mostly male views here!).

    https://www.sassymamahk.com/pregnanc...spitals-birth/

    Personally, I found the most important thing was having an experienced woman I trusted that could advocate for / advise me, which is why I used midwifery services which provided a dedicated midwife throughout pregnancy and after the birth. I think that private midwives are not allowed in the delivery room at public hospitals though, so this would be a major reason for a private hospital if it were me. I am unsure if insurance packages would cover midwives, but places like Annerley at OT&P might have some advice on this.

    Good luck!