Health Insurance Waiting Periods in Hong Kong: When Cover Actually Starts

Almost everyone buying medical cover in Hong Kong asks what it costs and what it covers. Very few ask when it starts, which is the question that decides whether the first claim is paid or refused. A policy that is in force is not the same thing as a policy that will pay. Between the […]
Monthly Health Insurance Budget in Hong Kong: What Is Reasonable

“What should I be paying?” is a fair question with an annoying answer, which is that the average tells you almost nothing. Averages in this market are pulled around by age, by whether the plan is local or international, and above all by settings most people never consciously chose. A thirty-year-old on a Hong Kong-only […]
Health Insurance Claims in Hong Kong: How the Process Actually Works

Most people buy a health plan and never read a word about how a claim actually works until the day they need one. That is understandable and it is also the wrong order, because two or three decisions taken in the first hour decide how the rest of it goes. The mechanics of health insurance […]
Health Insurance for Retirees in Hong Kong: What Changes After 60

Retirement changes two things at once, and they pull in opposite directions. The employer scheme stops, and the cost of replacing it is at its highest. Almost every difficulty in this subject comes from those two events landing in the same month. The good news is that health insurance for retirees in hong kong is […]
Cheapest International Health Insurance in Hong Kong: What You Trade Away

Nothing is wrong with wanting to pay less. The problem is that on an international medical plan there are two entirely different ways of paying less, and they look identical on a quote. The first is choosing to carry more of the risk yourself — a higher deductible, a narrower map, a simpler ward. That […]
Compare International Health Insurance: Total Cost vs the Headline Premium

Almost everybody compares health plans on the premium, because the premium is the only number printed large enough to compare. It is also, on its own, close to meaningless. A plan can be a thousand dollars cheaper a year and cost you five thousand more in a year you actually use it. The gap between […]
Health Insurance With Pre-Existing Conditions in Hong Kong

The fear behind most of these enquiries is that a health history makes[7] you uninsurable. It very rarely does. What it does is change the shape of what you can buy, how much it costs, and how much the application itself matters. Hong Kong is also an unusually good market to have this conversation in, […]
Global Health Insurance in Hong Kong: What “Worldwide” Really Covers

The word “global” does a lot of work in insurance marketing, and almost none of it is precise. Every international plan is sold with a defined area of cover written into the schedule. On global health insurance hong kong residents are offered, that area is the single biggest driver of what you pay, and it […]
Health Insurance for Expatriates in Hong Kong: Which Insurers Cover You

Most people arrive at this question with the wrong first move. They start comparing plans. The plans only make sense once you know which of three quite different families of cover you belong in, and that is decided by facts about your life rather than by anything on a benefit schedule. Get the family right […]
Insurance Broker Hong Kong: What a Broker Actually Does for Expats

Most people in Hong Kong buy their first policy from whoever was in front of them[3]. A colleague passed on a name, a bank called, a friend mentioned somebody[5]. It works, more or less, and then three years later a claim gets reduced[1] and nobody can explain why. The alternative is to appoint someone whose […]
