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Q: i want to buy health insurance for my gf, any tips?
which health insurance companies are trustworthy and cost effective.
10 years 49 weeks ago in Health & Safety - China
We looked at China Life, Taiping and Ping An when we bought insurance for both of us two years ago. The products are overall the same, there are some smaller differences that could make one company more interesting over another. We chose Ping An because the sales people seemed most credible.
We found at the time that the price of the products for the same coverage is almost identical between the companies.
For Chinese health insurance you have essentially two types
Just health insurance - paid per year, you can stop at any time
Health insurance and saving - typically paid over 20 years (5 and 10 years exists as well) You pay a higher premium annually, but after 20 years you no longer need to pay more. If you after 20 years decide you don't need the insurance you can have the money paid out including interest. Some of these will have fixed interest rates, some will have a target interest rate, but in reality you money could be lost. The ones we have cover two basic areas. Hospitalization and serious disease. The first has a maximum cost per hospitalization, the latter is a lump sum paid out if you get one of the listed diseases, once paid out you no longer have that insurance.
As long as you do not have a decidedly dangerous job, the main factor in the cost is your age. My wife and me have the same coverage, but for me it is several thousands more per year just because I am a little bit older than her.
The main surprise for me as a European is that 1. the insurance people will recommend you to have better coverage the higher income you have. Naturally you will have more air in your budget fo insurance, but the cost of fixing a health problem would be about the same. 2. It seems that the default packages are designed to leave relatives the insurance sum rather than to provide means for treating disease. So you probably have to accept that along with medical coverage also comes a decent life insurance.
Scandinavian:
Note. The 20 year things, you will typically not be able to alter the insurance sum. So if you decide the sum is not enough, you simply get another insurance alongside it. I think you can also pay all 20 years payments in one go. Not sure if this would allow the sum to be cashed out right away as well.
Scandinavian:
note 2. the default beneficiary, when your GF is not married would be her parents, so if you like her a lot and don't want to risk her parents kills her, you should have yourself put as beneficiary
Scandinavian:
Mine is about 20000 per year, it was made when I was in my early 30ies the coverage is a lump sum of about half a million in case of serious disease and hospitalization costs of up to 50000. (a hospital bed in China costs almost nothing 50 per day or so for a normal hospital, treatment and drugs can be quite a lot more)
Its the 20 year, get your money back with interest scheme. I have no high hopes on getting the sum back with a huge interest.
you seem to know what you are doing (Scand...) I still pay way too much money for my travel and life insurance ....... and then I/we bought the wife some insurance .... she's 46 and never had any and doesn't have a clue ....... neither do I for that matter..Chinese insurance ..... cost her/us 80RMB for a year of whatever it is she bought....I suspect that it is worthless ....... but what do I know ..... ...wish I could get health insurance for 80RMB/year
Scandinavian:
the 80RMB insurance will most likely cover some basic hospitalization, she will most likely not be able to get imported drugs etc. I think the next step comes at relatively few RMB more per month and then you also get some kind of retirement and a card that can be used to pay at pharmacies. (and the pharmacies do not care that the prescription says Mr. European Guy and the insurance card says Mrs. Chinese Gal)
btw. travel insurance. the last week or so, ressearch shows one thing. DON'T buy this in China. I knew this the other day when the sales guy from AIA insurrance told us that my wife as a Chinese national is not able to buy insurance any other place than China, for traveling the world. For 1200 RMB we could get the required insurance to travel to EU, same price bought by the German company Europaische (or however that is spelled) would be 1000RMB, of course the kicker is that my bank in home country provides me with a Mastercard, any travel tickets (plane/train/boat/bus etc) purchased with that card has unlimited travel insurance for me and my spouse. So end result is free.
There is a big difference in local medical insurance and international ones. 80RMB/year looks really to good to be truth but yes local medical insurance are cheaper than international ones. Only one big wake up call: scenario all are expats I think on this website, so eventually in the future you will leave China. For example you take now local health insurance, beside other arguments not to do it, major one is cover in the future. Now you expatriate in China, local medical, over 2 years you get asthma, no problem, local medical covers it. ONLY over five years you go to Thailand, home country or anywhere else. Than local China medical can not cover you, so you will need a new one, and mostly ALL insurers don't cover pre existing conditions. So for rest of your life you will pay all costs for your asthma yourself. So this will be reachable, but for example kidney diseases? For rest of your life out of your own pocket?? Expatriates always need to choose international ones. But with good advice, international ones possible around from 2,000 USD a year.
