Health Insurance for Expat Retiree in the Philippines

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MikeB
Posted
Posted

OP - if you're still looking...I had Blue Cross Philippines which is now Pacific Cross. From memory my last year in the phils I was your age and paid $1200 or $1400 yearly for in-patient coverage. This was one of the top plans, there are many. It goes up quite a bit when you hit 66. It was a so-called "dollar plan", the premiums are calculated in US dollars, don't know why. I was in a bad accident in 2011 and they paid virtually everything. Child had an illness that required brief hospitalization and that was completely covered. Both times insurance rep came to hospital and got billing straight. I believe the pre-existing stuff basically goes away after a year but you would have to read the fine print. Imo, you would be wise to keep the Medigap coverage until you have a local plan. 

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Ice Patrol
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Posted
7 hours ago, MikeB said:

OP - if you're still looking...I had Blue Cross Philippines which is now Pacific Cross. From memory my last year in the phils I was your age and paid $1200 or $1400 yearly for in-patient coverage. This was one of the top plans, there are many. It goes up quite a bit when you hit 66. It was a so-called "dollar plan", the premiums are calculated in US dollars, don't know why. I was in a bad accident in 2011 and they paid virtually everything. Child had an illness that required brief hospitalization and that was completely covered. Both times insurance rep came to hospital and got billing straight. I believe the pre-existing stuff basically goes away after a year but you would have to read the fine print. Imo, you would be wise to keep the Medigap coverage until you have a local plan. 

Due to the Covid / Corona virus my move to the Phils has been delayed.But the Cigna Global seemed to be the best ins. as it would cover me mostly worldwide - accept for the USA.And it is expensive as I saw on there website.I will check on the Pacific cross before I sign up for a policy.Healthcare cost in the Phils is very resonable as compaired to the USA.I had to go to a Iloilo hostital ER last August for 2 and 1/2 days.The cost was 665 usd.Here in the US it would have been $5000.00 or more for the same healthcare....:ohmy:

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RBM
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14 hours ago, GeoffH said:

SWMBO has Sunlife 

https://www.sunlife.com.ph/PH/Insurance/Health+protection?vgnLocale=en_CA

At the moment I'm stuck in Aussie and my previous cover has lapsed (no point having it here) but I'm looking at getting Caritas when I go back because it covers more hospitals in CDO than Sunlife.

https://www.caritashealthshield.com.ph/home

Also you may be able to get Phil Health (depeding upon your visa) even as a foreigner which will cover part of the cost without costing a huge amount each year.

Try 1 cover, have unfortunately used them a few times, excellent back up service.

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Freebie
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17 hours ago, NIgelmac1401 said:

Hi all,

 

Outside of Cigna for us UK expats is there a decent healthcare Plan, contract provider etc that can cover us over there?

I am currently under company BUPA international healthcare plane but that will change the day I retire and they are very expensive.

Hi @ Nigel... theres a great site that I used called MajorCompare... based out of HK. Thats how I got mine... https://www.majorcompare.com.hk/

I think they list all the major insurance players so you get to choose what to utilise and what to discard ( ie in my case I dont meed US coverage so that saved a fair chunk on the annual premium)

 

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GeoffH
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2 hours ago, RBM said:

Try 1 cover, have unfortunately used them a few times, excellent back up service.

1Cover is the company I was using which has lapsed, no complaints but they're a fair bit more expensive than Caritas (probably more benefits though).

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Gas
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18 hours ago, GeoffH said:

SWMBO has Sunlife 

https://www.sunlife.com.ph/PH/Insurance/Health+protection?vgnLocale=en_CA

At the moment I'm stuck in Aussie and my previous cover has lapsed (no point having it here) but I'm looking at getting Caritas when I go back because it covers more hospitals in CDO than Sunlife.

https://www.caritashealthshield.com.ph/home

Also you may be able to get Phil Health (depeding upon your visa) even as a foreigner which will cover part of the cost without costing a huge amount each year.

We had Caritas a few years back and i would say look somewhere else. The 'free' annual check up is a waste of time, as it doesn't even cover the basic investigations and you end up paying. 

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stevewool
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Can I ask, are there any members who have not taken out health insurance at all while living there in the Philippines.

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GeoffH
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Posted (edited)
12 minutes ago, stevewool said:

Can I ask, are there any members who have not taken out health insurance at all while living there in the Philippines.

I expect it would be possible to self insure (or at least only take out Phil Health) because most procedures in the Philippines are a lot cheaper than they are in Western Countries and that would cover most situations.  But it would mean leaving a substantial sum in a bank account in case of an emergency.  How much?  Well that's the issue isn't it... most insurances have cover to a million , a million and a half, two million (or even more) pesos which may not be possible for all (and even if it is I'm not sure I'd want to be restricting my capital that way).

Edited by GeoffH
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Freebie
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I have Cigna and it helped me greatly on my many international travels. I suppose if one was only in Philippines one could pay for regular doctors visits etc as the price per visit plus medication isnt that high, but I think the purpose of medical insurance os for those " oh no not me " days. For instance  several years ago was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Had prostate removed  plus 5 days in hospital in Hong Kong .. the costs for that , plus numerous follow ups back then came to approx USD 40,000. Insurance paid in full. Paying for that without insurance would have left a big hole in the pocket/wallet.

I think thats the main purpose of insurance, not the random outpatient visits that are made.

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Viking
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2 hours ago, stevewool said:

Can I ask, are there any members who have not taken out health insurance at all while living there in the Philippines.

Thats how we plan to do it, except that we will get Phil Health.

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