Retire In The Philippines Without Good Medical Cover At Your Peril

[Medic Mike]

 

one thing you must make sure of before retireing here in the philippines is make sure you are covered by a good medical insurance ..policy ,not all insurence policies are recognised by philippine hospitals .I have double hip replacements and cannot get cover as i have an existing condition which is one of the main reasons that i can,t retire here as i can,t afford the medical side of things .most hospitals here want cash up front before admitting you now if your unconsious now there is a dilema lol.so always make sure your g f or wife can access your bank account in case it ever happens to you .thats if you ever make it to the hospital alive because the quality of ambulances have to be seen to be believed .the ones i have seen are nothing more than toyota hi aces with the seats ripped out with no or very little life saving equiptment on board .not many philippinos have heard of sat navs which brings another problem of them trying to find where you live lol.sorry to be so negative but that is the reality of things here its not always a paradise but a paradise with risks if you know what i mean.its very common here for the hospital to ask for blood donations if you are being operated on if you have a rare blood group you better pray .

Excellent advice Tiger! I was nodding my head in agreement as I read through your boots on the ground report.

Seems like very little improvement as far as ambulance service over the last couple decades. Some of the med

equipment are either not working, stolen or sold. Instead many white Hi Aces vans with the red cross are used as

private passenger services. Regarding GPS navigation or a simple road map of a particular region is simply not

readily available among the Filipino motorist. Besides, just about every region's physical geography can change

drastically. Original street address with real families can either be buried or moved a couple KM downstream.

I think your advice about a close companion having limited access to bank accounts and emergency contact

information, is a bulls eye head shot!

Well done my friend -- Jake

 

You guys have hit the nail right on the head with all your comments. One thing I have been involved in at the moment is trying to get involved in the EMS system in the Cebu City area. Years ago my medical director told me once that good basic life support (BLS) vs advanced life suport (ALS) will save more lives than anything else. It boggles my mind in this day and age that the "so called ambulances in the Cebu area, not to mention the PI at large still have no idea". I guess even though it is 2013, life is still considered cheap in Asia.