Confused about Queen Mary

V

visitor

Registered User
I have heard you can deliver as a general patient there for $68 a day. Does that include any complications that may arise?
If you have a semi private room, do you just pay the $2000 per night for the room or do all the other costs necassarily go up as well?
 
Visitor, I just read your other posts and realised that you're not actually pregnant yet. Instead of spending HK$16,000+ on QMH, spend it on some good maternity medical insurance. If you sign up for a UK insurance company's plan now (Allianz, BUPA International, Morgan Price...) then sign up with Dr. Philip Ho you will have to pay him HK$5,000 when you join but will not have to pay any more to him (or a private hospital) until you're 36 weeks at which point the insurance co's 10 month waiting period would be over and they'll get to pay the rest!!!!! I've had a broker look into cover for me, and the prices for someone 26 - 30 start at GBP65 per month.

I had my baby at QMH last year and really hated it so if you can avoid it do!!!
 
Regarding the costs for maternity insurance for someone under 30, expect to pay around US$ 100 ? 120+ per month which would give you about US$6,500-8,500 for routine delivery and pre-natal checkups. This would be on a co-insurance basis, you would need to pay 20% of the costs and the company would pay 80% up to the above quoted limits. Premiums are age related so will be higher than this if you are over 30.

Also, depending upon the levels of medical cover required and the area of cover (i.e. elective cover in the USA) this figure may be much higher. Plans vary but there is always a waiting period before you can make any claims. This ranges from 12 months after joining the plan before you can make any maternity claims to having to wait for 12 months before inception so you really do need to plan ahead.

There are several companies offering this type of cover such as Goodhealth (in Hong Kong), William Russell (in UK), BUPA (tends to be much more expensive), and Interglobal (again UK based) to name a few.

If you want any more detailed information or want to talk to someone about the options feel free to PM me or email me at [email protected]
 
Kevin, your facts aren't quite accurate. Most UK insurers have a 10 month waiting period, while Morgan Price have one co-insurance policy that has a waiting period of only three months. Moreover, most don't require co-insurance.
 
Not sure what insurer Morgan Price are quoting you (as they are brokers) but all of the major ones such as BUPA, William Russell, and Goodhealth all have 10-20% co-insurance and all have waiting periods of 12 months plus before you can make maternity claims or 6 months before conception. Otherwise thay would all go out of business very quickly with all the maternity claims :)

Of course there is no waiting period for other medical claims.
 
Kevin, I'm sorry but I still disagree with you. The HK branches of medical insurance companies and US insurers have 12 month waiting periods but UK based companies such as BUPA International (c.f. BUPA HK), Allianz etc have 10 month waiting periods and no co-insurance (unless you go for the 3 month waiting period). This information has come from another broker (i.e. not your company) called Medibroker and from reading all the insurers' terms and conditions. If you don't believe me, look on the web as all the companies post their fine print on the net.
 
BUPA is about the only one that has a lower waiting period (agree about the 10 months, but 10 months? 12 month? whats the difference?) but the rest of their benifits are not really up to the same level as others and the premiums are the higest around with a loading for Hong Kong. Therefore don't tend to use them very much anymore.

Depends at the end of the day what you really want for your money and how much you are willing to spend.
 
Kevin

What is the difference between going direct to BUPA or Goodhealth, and through a broker? Are the rates the same?

My husband and one son is with Goodhealth and our other son and me are with BUPA. We are considering changing to Goodhealth, but probably will not due to pre-existing conditions etc..

What is your advice?
 
Babyblue,

Going through a broker or going direct will be the same cost. The benefits of going through an independent broker is that he can help you compare various companies and plans and help you to evaluate which one would be most suitable.

Also it means you do not need to deal directly with insurance company, which may be in UK, Europe or some other country, which can be a real pain. Another good reason to use a broker is that they can handle all of your various insurances (medical, life, household etc and investments) giving you one contact point for all of your plans, making life much easier.

Regarding your specific question on consolidating your plans I would really need to sit down with you and discuss the pros and cons in more details. As you rightly point out, switching from one insurer to another may mean you lose out on any no-claims discounts and any pre-existing conditions will not be covered (at least not for another 2 years with Goodhealth). However it is sometimes possible to switch to another insurer with no, or little, penalty depending who you were covered with previously and if you can provide enough information to them. They tend to treat each case individually.

Drop me a line at [email protected] if you want to discuss in more detail
 
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