Cost of entire pregnancy, private vs public

S

staceycolyer

Registered User
I have just arrived in HK and am on a dependent visa. I will be getting a HK identity card quite soon. I am a UK citizen. I am hoping to fall pregnant within a year and have LOTS of questions!

1) Can anyone recommend a good insurer who will cover all pregnancy needs (initial doctor visits as well as hospital stay, birth etc), as well as cover the child after it is born.

2) I live in the Wan Chai area, can anyone recommend a good doctor in this, or near this area? And what would the best private and public hospitals in or near this area?

3) What are the entire costs of private pregnancy? (including all the pre-birth needs as mentioned above, and hospital stay, birth etc)

4) What are the entire costs of public hospital pregnancy?

5) Lastly, what is the difference in quality between private and public?

Your advice and recommendations will be greatly appreciated.
 
You've got a lot of questions - and you can find a lot of the answers by using the "search" feature on the webpage.

PUBLIC hospital is ridiculously cheap. It costs about $360 for the hospital stay. PRIVATE is ridiculously expensive. It can cost (just for the hospital/delivery charges) in excess of $100,000.

My insurance (AXA through my husband's employment) only covers up to $30,000 and so what I decided to do was to see a private doctor early on in the pregnancy and to plan for the delivery to be at the public hospital. Many people go this kind of "half half" route.

Wan Chai - I believe that Sally Fergurson is there (for the doctor). Not sure of any others. But this site has a "doctors list" under "directory" at the top of the page.

For hospitals, if you go private, you could do any of them really. For public, probably Queen Mary is best.

Queen Mary has some of the best NICU care in Asia, even in the world. If you're booked in a private hospital but end up having the baby premature (before 34 weeks), you MUST give birth at Queen Mary, I believe (on Hong Kong island, anyway).

About the doctors visits - if you SOLELY go public, the doctors visits are mostly free. SOME of the things, you have to pay for but it's VERY minimal. The ultrasound costs $60 in the public system, but they only do one or two.

If you go to a private doctor, each visit will be around $1200 for the consultation and ultrasound, or maybe around $700 for just the consultation without an ultrasound.

For me, it seems to be working well going to a private doctor every so often - but doing the majority of it through the public system. It has it's down sides - but it works for me. If you want to be more "pampered" throughout the pregnancy, if you want the "little extras" in terms of manners and seeing the same doctor all the time, the private system is much better. And the hospitals are more like hotels!! But the cost is incredibly high!!

About insurance - I have no idea. We just use the insurance that came with my husband's job!!
 
Thanks so much for all the info. Have been searching this site, but wanted to get answers to all the questions from one person - have found it difficult to piece together various responses from various people. Will keep researching. Thanks again!
 
Stacey,
Just make sure that whether you decide public or private that you book the hospital immediately after you have a confirmed pregnancy. I originally wanted to go public but was turned down because they were full around my due date. At that point saving money wasn't an option and I could only get a booking at a private hospital. Just an FYI to save you some stress :smile:
 
if you go public, you cannot "book" the hospital, besides being a gov't hospital, they will NOT turn you away. at least not in my two pregnancies that i've delivered in hk.

which public hospital did you go to?
 
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I would say (from what I've read and heard) the doctors in both public and private are very good. A lot of them seem to have trained abroad in the UK/USA. The main difference for the actual hospital stay is that at public hospital you seem to be very limited in terms of when your husband can visit and when he can actually attend during the labour (there are some threads on this) I think you also have to take a lot of the basic items with you e.g toilet paper, mattress protector etc. Also I think you're more likely to be on a ward as apposed to your own room. In private hospitals depending on how much you can pay (or insurance covers) you can get your own room and hubby can even stay with you.

Like Nicole we're with AXA which is provided by my husbands work but as we knew we were going to get pregnant we got one of the top cover. This covers us for the dr visits and scans and the cost during hospital. Monthly it is a bit expensive but if you think that the entire pregnancy can cost anywhere up to HK$150,000 it is worth it (plus you have dental cover etc).

Also you do need to book a hospital through your dr as soon as you even think you are pregnant....they get booked up very quickly. I use Dr Ferguson (orginally from the UK) and she delivers at the Matilda hospital. She's very down to earth and reassuring.

Good luck on the road to pregnancy!
 
We use AIA - came with husbands job, and it covers up to $70,000 for v birth and $105,000 for c section.
I think there was an option to top up the cover as well.

I had a shared care arrangement with my local GP and ob - this made it cheaper. This was through Central Health - not sure if your local GP will offer this?
It did mean that the care was more like that in the UK where you see mostly midwives and a GP - different to most women in HK where maternity care is all obstetrician appts.
 
For insurance, best to speak to an agent. You can contact Pacific Prime, their ad is on the right hand side.

We were previously covered with William Russell, but their premiums for Asia have gone up significantly. Now we're with Healthcare Intl

http://www.healthcareinternational.com/

They cover US$25K for maternity.
 
but as far as I remember u need to be the insured one year before you actually get pregnant to get pregnancy coverage( this is for private coverage no idea about coverage thru job)
 
Through my husband's job, we only had to wait for him to pass the 3 months probation to be eligible for the pregnancy cover. Something like that...

We had the option of topping up the cover - but for some reason, we didn't take it. I didn't realise how much having a baby here actually cost, and I assumed that our cover WOULD cover private hospitals!!

My husband doesn't like Matilda though because apparently in WW2 it was used as some kind of concentration camp by the Japanese or something like that. *shrugs* But I would so go there if I was going to get it for "free" (with the insurance, I mean).

Depending on how the rest of this pregnancy goes and how the hospital is and all that, we may top up our cover in the future and go private for our 2nd child - but I just couldn't justify paying that much money out of pocket for a more cushy room and better visiting hours.
 
nicole... does your hubby know that the japanese used the peninsula hotel as their headquarters?
 
I don't know if HE does, but I'd heard that.

I think it's crazy that he wouldn't use Matilda because of whatever happened there during WW2 - but *shrugs* it's irrelevant for us this time around anyway!! Maybe next time, if I REALLY want to go to Matilda, I can work on him, win him over ;)
 
my hubby refuses to go to indonesia because of the race riots there abotu 10 years ago...

even if matilda was used, it wasn't built for that purpose, it was taken over... they didn't have much say in the matter.

by the way, as an aside....my mother-in-law doesn't know when she was born because her family burned all of their documents when the japanese invaded... even her id card just has a year, and their not even sure if that is correct...
 
Carang

That's news to me because I went to Prince of Whales hospital and they told me that they were full and to go elsewhere to find a hospital to deliver. Also, I asked them if they knew of any hospitals that I could try and they didn't give me any information! They handed me my confirmation letter back and sent me on my way. I left the hospital crying and stressed out because I thought I would have to deliver my baby on the streets! My husband was able to talk to someone who helped us find a different hospital.
 
wow,megan, how TERRIBLE!

i have heard that pow is VERY busy because that is the hospital that most of the mainland mothers go to.

there must not be much choice way out in sheung shui.

you poor thing! i've never heard of a gov't hospital turning people away. as i said, i was always told that the gov't hospital would NOT turn anyone away.

i would write a letter to the SCMP describing what happened to you!

you poor thing!
 
Not sure if it made a difference or not but I technically did not have my Hong Kong ID card yet. I do have it now. I did tell them that I was in the process of getting a card.

I also assumed that it wouldn't be a problem that's why I was so shocked when that happened and then scared that I wouldn't find a hospital. Anyway, all is good now. I am so happy my current doctor; by far better than my doctor that I saw in America.

Thanks for the concern though :smile:
 
yes, that would DEFINITELY make a difference. if you had your hkid they could not possibly turn you away. they may have chosen not to understand that you were waiting to get it.
 
Hi Stacey,

I am using the Allianz Worldwide Care (International) provided by my husband company. (I am on dependent visa too). Does your husband company provides you the Healthcare insurance too?
I am with Union Hospital (Tai Wai). They quoted me around HK$80K for my delivery package (Virginal delivery) including room charge (Private room), and doctor fee HK$30k.

The reason they cant quote me the exact amount is because it depends on the private rooms availability on that day as I am going for virginal delivery. Charges for private rooms range from HK$2300 to HKS$3900.

As for my routine pregnancy check up, I am with Prestige Medical Centre. My regular check up cost HK$450 each visit including ultra sound scan (Not the 4D scan) with the photo. I didnt go for any blood test in HK, as I have done my blood test in UK during my early pregnancy. If not, the blood test would have costed around HK$1000 in my current Medical centre. Calcium tablets cost HK$10 for 2 weeks consumption.

We are very lucky as the insurance will cover all the above mentioned (full refund). Lets keep the fingers crossed that the insurance will fulfill whatever they have written and promised.

Good luck and have fun with your pregnancy.

Cheers,
Ai Li
 
Hi Stacey,

I am using the Allianz Worldwide Care (International) provided by my husband company. (I am on dependent visa too). Does your husband company provides you the Healthcare insurance too?
I am with Union Hospital (Tai Wai). They quoted me around HK$80K for my delivery package (Virginal delivery) including room charge (Private room), and doctor fee HK$30k.

The reason they cant quote me the exact amount is because it depends on the private rooms availability on that day as I am going for virginal delivery. Charges for private rooms range from HK$2300 to HKS$3900.

As for my routine pregnancy check up, I am with Prestige Medical Centre. My regular check up cost HK$450 each visit including ultra sound scan (Not the 4D scan) with the photo. I didnt go for any blood test in HK, as I have done my blood test in UK during my early pregnancy. If not, the blood test would have costed around HK$1000 in my current Medical centre. Calcium tablets cost HK$10 for 2 weeks consumption.

We are very lucky as the insurance will cover all the above mentioned (full refund). Lets keep the fingers crossed that the insurance will fulfill whatever they have written and promised.

Good luck and have fun with your pregnancy.

Cheers,
Ai Li

staceycolyer said:
I have just arrived in HK and am on a dependent visa. I will be getting a HK identity card quite soon. I am a UK citizen. I am hoping to fall pregnant within a year and have LOTS of questions!

1) Can anyone recommend a good insurer who will cover all pregnancy needs (initial doctor visits as well as hospital stay, birth etc), as well as cover the child after it is born.

2) I live in the Wan Chai area, can anyone recommend a good doctor in this, or near this area? And what would the best private and public hospitals in or near this area?

3) What are the entire costs of private pregnancy? (including all the pre-birth needs as mentioned above, and hospital stay, birth etc)

4) What are the entire costs of public hospital pregnancy?

5) Lastly, what is the difference in quality between private and public?

Your advice and recommendations will be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
 
The problem I find I HK is the difficulty with finding out accurate costs via telephone or the internet before committing (by booking an appointment). That is why these forums are so important for us expats, helps us to navigate the terrain.

Megan2008, what an awful experience. You know, I think about this quite a lot. Sure sometimes a person, place can not help you but there are ways of telling them, and some compassion they could show. Even though the staff at POW couldn't help you because they were full, I think they could have at least helped point you in the right direction so that you didn't have to go through that short time of intense stress. igh...don't know how to change the efficiency without compassion attitude.
 
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