[z754103]

Hi, this is a great forum, thanks to everyone for educating me on expat issues over the past few weeks.

I have questions on healthcare costs in HK, that I can't find answers to on the web or here. I'd appreciate any feedback from this great crowd here!

I am wondering how to assess health insurance packages. Does anyone have information on what prescription drug costs are relative to the US/Canada/UK. For example, how much would a year's supply of Celebrex cost? Prilosec? Presciption sleeping pills? Bood pressure medication? What are ranges of costs for family doctor visits in Central or Adventist Hospital? Physicotherapy treatment, e.g. if I sprain my ankle or hurt my back? X-rays, in a private hospital?

Ranges of cost for common types of operations, such as fibroid removal, anthroscopy, knee ligament surgery, through private hospitals, such as Adventist, Canossa or HK Sanatorium? I've found some room rates on the Adventist hospital website, so I'm all set for estimates of hospital room costs.

I realise these questions are of the 'how long is a piece of string variety', but I'm trying to get a handle on what are minimal, adequate or comfortable caps on payouts on insurance packages.

I realise I can use the public hospitals too, but I wanted to get an understanding of what the annual and disease based maximum payments I'm seeing in insurance documents translate to, in terms of practical coverage.

And of course if anyone has do's and don'ts for buying my own medical insurance, please let me know.

Thanks very much for your help

[KnowItAll]

>> I realise these questions are of the 'how long is a piece of string variety'

Ummm yeah. Not only is the length of the string a variable, but the type of room that you stay in also changes the equation.

Hong Kong doctors (and this is a scam in my opinion) will double and quaruple their rates if you stay in a semi-private and private rooms.

By the way, I'm sure a certain member will come in and suggest a visit to a therapist if your range of anticipated problems involves all of the above problems. (I'm just softening the blow...)

[z754103]

I'd be happy with any kinds of examples anyone can share. I was thinking of rooms with 2-3 occupants in total, as a benchmark.

I've also heard that the public hospitals wouldn't cover pacemakers, for example, or tamoxifen, among others. I'm not sure if that's the case, but worst case, if I had to pay out for urgent or life saving operations (or even to get quick x rays or medical tests done to save time), I wanted to get a sense of how far coverage goes here.

Thanks!

[PDLM]

Originally Posted by KnowItAll

By the way, I'm sure a certain member will come in and suggest a visit to a therapist if your range of anticipated problems involves all of the above problems. (I'm just softening the blow...)

Well actually, I was just going to ask whether you were sure that the airline would accept you as fit to travel if you have the misfortune to suffer from all this lot!

[z754103]

Luckily I don't (yet) :-)

[KnowItAll]

PDLM : Thank you .. its rare that I laugh out loudly in the office...

[KnowItAll]

Head MRI - $7-10K

That was about the only time I've needed to use a hospital in HK.