DaileyB

My son is 22 years old and he can do his marketing work by zoom anywhere in the world. He has a family visa and might spend 9 out of the next 12 months in Shanghai. Our health insurance broker has stated that he isn't covered in China. Does anyone have any ideas as to how he can be covered with health insurance while he is in China?

mlin32

He would have to buy a separate international or travel insurance on his own. This applies to any international travel (for most people), not specific to China.

travelinmanS

He can buy an expat health insurance policy.

YariGuy

For a healthy person that age it shouldn't cost too much to buy private health insurance. There are many options, such as MSH. It might be easiest to go through a broker. Look up Pacific Prime - they are one of the biggest.

DaileyB

Can you be more explicit as to some of the names of expat health insurance policies. Thanks for your suggestion.

DaileyB

Thanks for everyone's suggestions. I will start looking them up.

Jiatong

I don't know the expat ones, But on travel health insurance policy issues.
prior to Medicare age, i used IMG supplement for trips to China, After Medicare age; I use a cousin to BlueCross called GeoBlue. They actually send a card and formal letter with China specifics along with a digital access agreement. (Its 12 pages, written by lawyers)
-Both i bought from my local insurance agent but selected the $ coverage on-line with various deductible amounts.
- Best hospital in BJ is Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH) for serious diseases, etc.

YariGuy

The following are accepted for direct billing (meaning your son doesn't have to pay out of pocket or deal with paperwork) at Jiahui hospital and clinic, my go-to provider in Shanghai:

AIA
Allianz
DW
AXA
Aetna
Assist Card
CPIC
Cigna
Cigna + CMB (China Merchants Bank)
Ping An
China Health Connect
Euro Center | Ergo
ERV
Globality Health
GBG
Generali China
Geoblue
Henner
Huatai
ICBC
IMS

https://www.jiahui.com/en/insurance
etc etc etc. Like I said it may be easier to go through a broker.

DaileyB

Thanks again. For two very useful posts.

Cathay Dragon 666

People already gave you great advice on health insurances. However, I would like to emphasize that there's really only 3 international hospitals worth your son's time. 1) United Family, 2) Sino United, and 3) Jiahui. Hope it goes well for him.

moondog

Disagree. There certainly more than three good hospitals in this city of 26 million people. Furthermore, if your ailment isn't life threatening, going to a hospital or clinic that is conveniently located often trumps quality.
https://www.smartshanghai.com/listin...ing/hospitals/

Cathay Dragon 666

I will respect your disagreement and to each their own. But I stand my point and the OP (and his son) can make his own decision.

DaileyB

I know very little about the hospitals in Shanghai. However, I will relate two stories about my son and his minor asthma as connected to China. (Both roughly 10 years ago) My second wife was a doctor at the 3rd biggest hospital in Beijing. In my past workers' compensation law practice, some of my clients had methacholine (sp) challenge tests which I presumed were expensive. While visiting Beijing I asked my then fiance at the time to set up a methacholine challenge test figuring it would be done well and would be comparatively inexpensive. The test was done and it found my son had severe asthma, which was obviously wrong in that he never had major breathing problems. Looking back, I am glad that the Beijing hospital didn't injure my son because the point of the test is to induce an asthmatic attack under controlled conditions. Second, one of my son's pulmonary specialists told me that he had worked in Shanghai for about six months and that the hospital where he worked he observed that the physicians there had routinely performed a standard pulmonary function test incorrectly. (probably spirometry) Of course, there are undoubtedly many fine doctors in China, but from my very limited experience it appears that the general level of competence in Chinese medical institutions is below that of the US.

Cathay Dragon 666

This is both true and false statement at the same time. True - the "general level" of competence is lower is correct. Many Chinese "doctors" don't actually have a doctoral. In fact, if you travel outside of "First-Tier" cities, chances are your doctors are trained at local community colleges. This is why even for the local Chinese, if they have a serious illness (or a moderate one), they will travel to First Tier cities to seek medical treatment.

False - I found many doctors in Shanghai are much more competent and knowledgeable vs. my precious doctors in the US that I dumped my US doctors and stick with the ones in Shanghai. China made it easy to find them: they are usually at International Hospitals. These hospitals also post their bio and medical expertise on the APPs, so you know exactly where they were trained, how many years of experiences, expertise, etc. Even the top doctors at Chinese hospitals, that it's virtually impossible to get an appointment with them, will attend to patients at International Hospitals (usually 2-4 days a month) and appointments are relatively easier (at a very high cost, but your insurance covers it so no cost to you).

My work have me involved in the Sixth People's Hospital in Shanghai for a while, and they developed some of the world's top techniques in treatment on wrists and finger joints. Many doctors from US and EU flew into Shanghai to learn from them. My sleep apnea doctor back in the States never can tune my CPAP correctly to my specific needs, and it took one visit with a Sleep Apnea doctor in Shanghai to fix the issue and I'm a completely different person (sleep-wise) afterwards. My cardiologist in US refuse to do more tests on me claiming I'm a-ok, but a visit to a cardiologist in Shanghai has shown that my heart blood vessels are blocked 70% and needed treatment. (If you're curious who are my doctors: UPenn and Johns Hopkin, the two top medical institutions in the States).

This is why I would recommend, if you're in China, and you gotten sick, go to the top International Hospitals in your region. Even if they don't have it themselves, they will get the top doctors from Government Hospitals to come treat you (if necessary). Foreign Direct-Payment Insurance is cash-cow for them.

YariGuy

Very true. Just by the volume of patients these top doctors see, they get a lot more experience in diagnosis / treatment.