Health Insurance while in Philippines

[Joe Kano 327]

For the guys who has or used to live in Philippines.  What did you do for medical insurance?

 

Did you roll the bones and if you really got sick just hop a plane back to US?

 

Did you try to enroll into Phil Health or some other private insurance offered in the Philippines

 

Or did you just decided to be self pay cash if you needed medical.

 

I have not heard very many good stories regarding doctors/hospitals and medical care in the Philippines, and from what I have seen and witnessed the healthcare isn't very good in Philippines.

[flicks1998 1,044]

8 hours ago, Joe Kano said:

For the guys who has or used to live in Philippines.  What did you do for medical insurance?

 

Did you roll the bones and if you really got sick just hop a plane back to US?

 

Did you try to enroll into Phil Health or some other private insurance offered in the Philippines

 

Or did you just decided to be self pay cash if you needed medical.

 

I have not heard very many good stories regarding doctors/hospitals and medical care in the Philippines, and from what I have seen and witnessed the healthcare isn't very good in Philippines.

When I was working there, I had payroll deductions for Philhealth and then the company provided private medical insurance.  Philhealth is only beneficial for things requiring overnight hospital stays, pregnancies, etc.  The rate for foreigners has increased substainally over the last few years and expected to rise more.  I find Philhealth to be kind of a nice little bonus insurance.  It did cover around 50% of my sons birth expenses and it can be used at the International Hospitals.

 

Ill provide a link for Makati med on the different HMOs you can look into.  My advice is to be insured for serious medical conditions, but maybe self insure for your routine doctors visits.  Heart attacks, kidney failures, etc etc, take out a high deductible plan.  Those type of procedures can get expensive in the Philippines.  Nothing like in the US, but still quite a bit of money ($30K+++++++).

 

Routine doctors visits at Makati Med or St Lukes are only around 600-900p.  Its quite cheap.  Ive had a few of those visits over the years and I just paid myself, filing with the HMO I had through work was a hassle.

 

Ive had a few more serious things develop (infection, torn calf muscle, etc) and Makati Med was a joke and every time I was mis-diagnosed.  I was told my torn calf muscle was a severe cramp but I flew to Singapore where it was determined I had torn 2/3s of the muscle from the bone.  It took about 2-3 months to heal and was incredibly painful.  

 

My advice would be the following:

• Have Philhealth as a backup (its still relatively cheap) - some will say its not worthwhile, but actually as a backup insurance its good to have.
• Have a high deductible insurance plan for serious medical issues
• Have evacuation insurance included although this may depend on your age and the relative risk for serious health issues.  However, knowing that you can get to Singapore or Hong Kong is reassuring.
• You could do regular HMO coverage for routine medical procedures but you may not find the value in it.  Alot of foreigners just self-insure for this unless you have a history of medical issues. 

This gives you a list of some of the private HMO's

https://www.makatimed.net.ph/about-mmc/health-maintenance-organizations

 

Anything medical related is quite terrible anywhere in the Philippines.  Some people will say they have had good experiences and had good doctors, but that is not the norm but rather the exception.  

[Joe Kano 327]

On 4/2/2021 at 12:04 PM, flicks1998 said:

When I was working there, I had payroll deductions for Philhealth and then the company provided private medical insurance.  Philhealth is only beneficial for things requiring overnight hospital stays, pregnancies, etc.  The rate for foreigners has increased substainally over the last few years and expected to rise more.  I find Philhealth to be kind of a nice little bonus insurance.  It did cover around 50% of my sons birth expenses and it can be used at the International Hospitals.

 

Ill provide a link for Makati med on the different HMOs you can look into.  My advice is to be insured for serious medical conditions, but maybe self insure for your routine doctors visits.  Heart attacks, kidney failures, etc etc, take out a high deductible plan.  Those type of procedures can get expensive in the Philippines.  Nothing like in the US, but still quite a bit of money ($30K+++++++).

 

Routine doctors visits at Makati Med or St Lukes are only around 600-900p.  Its quite cheap.  Ive had a few of those visits over the years and I just paid myself, filing with the HMO I had through work was a hassle.

 

Ive had a few more serious things develop (infection, torn calf muscle, etc) and Makati Med was a joke and every time I was mis-diagnosed.  I was told my torn calf muscle was a severe cramp but I flew to Singapore where it was determined I had torn 2/3s of the muscle from the bone.  It took about 2-3 months to heal and was incredibly painful.  

 

My advice would be the following:

• Have Philhealth as a backup (its still relatively cheap) - some will say its not worthwhile, but actually as a backup insurance its good to have.
• Have a high deductible insurance plan for serious medical issues
• Have evacuation insurance included although this may depend on your age and the relative risk for serious health issues.  However, knowing that you can get to Singapore or Hong Kong is reassuring.
• You could do regular HMO coverage for routine medical procedures but you may not find the value in it.  Alot of foreigners just self-insure for this unless you have a history of medical issues. 

This gives you a list of some of the private HMO's

https://www.makatimed.net.ph/about-mmc/health-maintenance-organizations

 

Anything medical related is quite terrible anywhere in the Philippines.  Some people will say they have had good experiences and had good doctors, but that is not the norm but rather the exception.  

You are a wealth of information

 

I always enjoy reading your posts, always spot on and very informative......

[flicks1998 1,044]

10 hours ago, Joe Kano said:

You are a wealth of information

 

I always enjoy reading your posts, always spot on and very informative......

Well, I can’t provide much info on the US immigration side, but on the Philippines at the moment my info is still fresh. I work in global mobility and have been moving a lot of the expats for Fortune 500 companies into the Philippines and other regional countries. So immigration, housing and real estate, schooling, orientations, taxes, and on and on.  The info is still fresh but once covid gets under control, things may change drastically. I came back to the US for my sons schooling. Once he graduates high school I’ll plan to move back (probably not the Philippines) but in the region. You’ll find a lot of Americans and others that once their kids get old enough they don’t want them educated in the Philippines and will move home for awhile. There are international schools but impossible for me to justify the $35k per year for them.  
 

As long as the info I have stays fresh I’ll post but eventually that will become outdated as the Philippines is changing so fast. 😀