If you run a small company in Hong Kong, the question of staff medical cover tends to arrive sideways. Nobody sets out to research group health insurance Hong Kong on a quiet Tuesday. Someone on the team has a baby on the way. A key hire asks what the benefits package looks like before they’ll sign. A long-serving employee gets a diagnosis and suddenly the gap between what the business offers and what the person needs is very visible. Almost nobody wakes up one morning and decides to buy a group scheme out of pure strategy.
That’s a shame, because a group medical scheme is one of the more sensible things a 3-to-50 person Hong Kong company can put in place. It is usually cheaper per head than the same people buying cover individually, it is far kinder to staff who already have a health history, and it is one of the cheapest ways to keep the people you’ve spent years training. It is also frequently confused with a completely separate legal obligation — employees’ compensation — which every employer in Hong Kong already has to hold whether they offer medical cover or not[1][2].
This piece is written for the owner or the office manager. We’ll go through what a group scheme actually buys, how small a company can be and still get one, why the underwriting is easier, what a sensible first scheme looks like, and where the retention argument really lands. We’ll follow three fictional Hong Kong business owners through it — their situations are all different, and by the end you’ll see why the specifics matter so much.
Related reading
- What a good employer scheme looks like in practice — benefit levels, common gaps, and where employers tend to over- or under-buy.
- The one cover you are legally required to hold — employees’ compensation explained for small Hong Kong employers.
- The policies a Hong Kong SME usually needs — a plain-English map of the whole business insurance picture.
- When the team grows past a handful of people — how rating and design shift for a five-to-fifty person group.
- what actually changes at renewal — the checks worth doing before you accept this year’s increase.
- getting the inpatient and outpatient balance right — how to size benefit levels and limits for a team this size.
For the full picture on employer schemes, start with our main page on group medical insurance.
What Group Health Insurance Hong Kong Actually Is, and What It Isn’t
A group medical scheme is one policy, held by the company, covering a defined list of employees. The company is the policyholder. The staff are the members. Everyone on the scheme gets the same benefit table, or the same table within a defined tier structure if you decide directors and senior staff sit on a richer level than everyone else.
What it is not: it is not a collection of individual policies bought in bulk. That distinction sounds academic until you look at the underwriting, which is where the real value sits — and we’ll come back to it shortly.
The people below are fictional personas we have put together to show which options tend to suit which situations. They are not real clients. Our client information always remains 100% confidential.
Meet Tom* He’s in his early fifties and runs a company of about a dozen people in Hong Kong. He has a family with school-age children, pays for his own family cover out of his own pocket, and has been quietly wondering for about eighteen months whether he should put something in place for the team. His practical worry is simple: he doesn’t want to start something he can’t sustain, and he doesn’t want to hand out a benefit that turns out to be thin when someone actually needs it.
Fictional persona based on a combination of common scenarios.
The Headcount Question for Group Health Insurance Hong Kong: How Small Is Too Small?
This is the first thing almost every owner asks, and the honest answer is that it varies by insurer. Some of the international insurers on our panel will write a group scheme from three lives[4]. Others want five. Others want ten before they’ll offer proper group terms rather than a bundle of individually-underwritten policies with a group discount bolted on[5].
What this means in practice is that a three-person company has a smaller field of options than a twenty-person company, not that it has none. Tom*, at twelve staff, sits comfortably in the range where most insurers will quote and where he can genuinely compare offers side by side.
Why group underwriting is kinder to your staff
This is the part of group health insurance Hong Kong that owners consistently underestimate. This is the part most owners underrate, and it’s the strongest argument for a group scheme that has nothing to do with price.
When an individual applies for private medical cover, they answer a health questionnaire. If they have a history — a managed condition, a past surgery, an ongoing prescription — the insurer will typically respond with an exclusion, a loading, or occasionally a decline[5]. That’s normal, it’s how individual medical underwriting works everywhere, and it’s why we always say the best time to buy cover is before you need it.
Group schemes work differently. Depending on the size of the group and the insurer, medical underwriting may be reduced to a short declaration, or waived entirely in favour of what’s usually called a “medical history disregarded” basis[5]. Where that applies, staff who would struggle to get clean individual cover are simply covered[6].
The problem: a valued employee with a managed condition can’t buy meaningful individual cover at a sensible price, so they go without.
What helps: a group scheme where underwriting is relaxed brings that person inside the tent, without the company having to know or ask what their condition is.
Rajesh* is in his late fifties and runs a long-established family business in Hong Kong. He expects to be here for the long term — the business and the family are both based here — and he has adult children, one of whom now has a young family. Rajesh* has a health condition already on the record, well controlled for years. On an individual application that history shows up.
On a group scheme with relaxed underwriting it may not matter at all[5]. That difference alone could be the reason a group arrangement looks more attractive to him than shopping individually — though it depends heavily on which insurers will write a company of his size on that basis, and we wouldn’t know until we’d put his numbers in front of them.
Fictional persona based on a combination of common scenarios.
Individual cover vs a company scheme — what actually differs
| Feature | Individual policy | Company group scheme |
|---|---|---|
| Health questions | Full questionnaire, every applicant | Often reduced; sometimes waived above a size threshold |
| Existing conditions | Commonly excluded or loaded | Frequently covered where underwriting is relaxed |
| Who owns it | The individual — it travels with them | The company — cover ends when employment does |
| Cost per person | Priced on that person’s age and history | Priced on the group’s profile; usually lower at entry tier |
| Admin burden | None for the employer | One renewal, one member list, one point of contact |
| Benefit design | Tailored to one person | One table for everyone, or tiered by grade |
What a group scheme costs relative to individual cover
We will not quote you a premium in an article, and you should be wary of anyone who does. Group pricing is built from your actual census — every member’s age, the cover area, the benefit depth, the excess, and often the claims history if the scheme has been running elsewhere. A quote is the only real number.
What we can do is show you the shape. Here is the individual market for a Hong Kong resident on a mid-depth plan, worldwide cover excluding the United States, with a moderate excess[7]. Read it as the reference point, not as your group price.
Individual reference ranges — mid-tier, worldwide excluding USA
Adding the United States to the cover area roughly doubles these figures at every age. A quote is the only real number.
A group scheme built at entry benefit level, for a young-ish team, on regional rather than worldwide cover, will normally land well below the mid-tier individual figures above on a per-head basis. A group scheme built at top benefit level, worldwide including the USA, for a team with an average age in the fifties, can land well above them. Both are “group health insurance” and the gap between them is enormous. That’s why the design conversation matters more than the shopping-around conversation — and it’s exactly the sort of thing worth mapping out properly before you commit to anything.
The four levers that actually move the price
Whether you’re buying for one person or thirty, the same four things drive the premium. Get these right and the scheme fits. Get them wrong and you either overspend or hand your team a benefit that disappoints at the worst moment.
1. Geography — the biggest single lever
There are three standard cover areas: Europe only, worldwide excluding the USA, and worldwide including the USA[8]. For a Hong Kong company the choice is nearly always between the last two, and it is not a small choice. Adding the United States roughly doubles the premium — around twice the cost at age 30, a little more from 35 to 50, more again from 55, and around two and a half times by age 70[7][9].
2. Excess or deductible
Relative to a mid-level excess, taking a nil excess costs noticeably more. A moderate excess saves in the region of 10–18%. A high excess saves roughly 30–45%[7][9]. On a group scheme the excess is a genuinely strategic decision: a small excess that staff barely notice can fund a much higher annual limit for the same money.
3. Benefit tier
Entry tier to top tier is a substantial multiple at the same age[7]. It’s worth understanding what that money buys, because it is not better inpatient care — the hospital and the surgeon are the same. Most of that gap buys outpatient depth, dental, optical and maternity[4].
4. Age at entry, and staying put
From 40 to 65, premiums rise several times over on a mid-tier plan. From 45 to 55 alone it’s about a 75% increase[7]. This is why entry age matters, and why moving an older employee off a scheme they’ve been on for years — once conditions are on the record — is something to think very carefully about.
What a sensible starter scheme includes
If you’re putting a first scheme in place, the instinct is either to buy the cheapest thing available so you can say you have one, or to buy something impressive so nobody can complain. Neither ages well. A good first scheme is deliberately narrow and genuinely deep where it counts.
The core of a first scheme
- Full inpatient and day-patient cover — a meaningful annual limit, semi-private room as standard, surgeon and anaesthetist fees, and no nasty inner limits on the big-ticket items[4].
- Cancer treatment in full — the single benefit that most justifies the whole scheme. Check it is covered on the same terms as any other condition.
- A clear cover area — usually Hong Kong plus regional, or worldwide excluding the USA. Decided once, deliberately[8].
- Direct settlement — so staff aren’t paying a hospital bill up front and waiting for reimbursement.
- A defined dependant option — even if the company doesn’t pay for it, staff should be able to add family at scheme rates[4].
What to leave out of version one
Outpatient cover with a low per-visit limit, dental, optical and wellness benefits are all pleasant[4]. They are also the benefits people claim on constantly, which means they push the premium up and make renewal increases sharper. If budget is tight, a scheme that covers a serious illness properly and offers nothing for a dental check-up is a better scheme than the reverse.
Maternity: the benefit that decides it for some teams
Maternity is where group schemes get interesting, and where the waiting periods matter enormously.
Mei-Ling* is in her early forties and co-founded a startup in Hong Kong. She has a young child and plans for a second. There is no corporate scheme at the company at all — she and her co-founder have simply never got to it. Maternity waiting periods are not an abstract planning issue for her; they are a live, urgent problem with a clock on them.
Fictional persona based on a combination of common scenarios.
Maternity benefits on almost every plan carry a waiting period, commonly measured in months from the start of cover, before any claim can be made[10][11]. Buy the cover after the pregnancy is confirmed and the benefit is of no use for that pregnancy. This is not an insurer being difficult — it’s how the benefit is priced — but it does mean the sequencing is everything.
The problem: maternity is a top-tier benefit on most plans, and it’s the reason a scheme’s price jumps. But it’s also the benefit a young founding team most wants.
What helps: a tiered scheme — a solid core benefit for everyone, with maternity available at a higher level for those who want it and are prepared to contribute toward the difference.
For Mei-Ling*, with high price sensitivity and a startup balance sheet, it looks like a scheme with maternity at a defined limit could work harder than a richer all-round plan — though it depends entirely on how soon the second pregnancy is planned and whether her co-founder wants the same thing. On what she’s told us, starting the clock sooner rather than later may matter more than getting the last few percent off the premium[11]. That’s a judgement we’d only make properly with both founders in the room.
The cover that isn’t optional: employees’ compensation
Here is the point that trips up more Hong Kong small employers than any other. Group medical insurance is a benefit. Employees’ compensation insurance is a legal duty. They are separate policies, they cover different things, and having one does not satisfy the other.
Under the Employees’ Compensation Ordinance, every employer in Hong Kong must hold a valid employees’ compensation policy covering their liability for work-related injury or occupational disease — for all employees, whether full-time or part-time, and regardless of how long they’ve been with you[2]. The Labour Department is clear that failing to hold it is a criminal offence[1][2].
Most small employers we meet do have EC cover in place — it’s usually arranged when the company is set up. What they often haven’t done is checked whether the wage roll it was rated on still matches reality after three years of hiring, or whether the policy still names the right activities. If you’d like a straight answer on where your business stands, our piece on the employer’s legal duty on staff injury covers it in more detail, and it sits inside the wider picture of what a Hong Kong SME actually needs to hold.
The retention argument — and why it’s stronger than it looks
Group health insurance Hong Kong shows up in the exit interview far more often than in the recruitment pitch. Hong Kong’s public hospital system is genuinely good, and it is heavily subsidised for eligible residents, with charges published openly by the Hospital Authority[12]. Nobody in Hong Kong goes without care. So why does private cover move the needle on staff retention?
Because it changes the experience at the moment people are most frightened. Choice of specialist. Timing of a procedure. A semi-private room. A spouse who can be there. Employees remember, for years, which employer was standing next to them during the worst month of their life[13].
A story from the desk
An eleven-person architecture practice put a modest group scheme in place, mostly because a senior associate had asked. Fourteen months later that associate’s wife was diagnosed with something serious. She was on the scheme as a dependant, at a cost to the firm of a few thousand Hong Kong dollars a month. The treatment was arranged in weeks rather than months. He is still with the practice six years on, and has since turned down two approaches. The owner’s view, unprompted: it was the cheapest recruitment decision he ever made.
Set against the cost of replacing a good employee in Hong Kong — recruitment fees, three to six months of reduced output, the institutional knowledge that walks out with them — a group scheme is one of the least expensive retention tools available to a small company[13]. It’s also one of the few that the employee’s family notices, which is not a small thing.
The founder’s blind spot: your own cover
Group health insurance Hong Kong schemes routinely cover everyone except the person who set them up. Owners routinely design a scheme for the team and forget themselves, or assume they’ll just fold into it. Sometimes that’s right. Often it isn’t.
Tom* is a good example. He’s in his early fifties, on worldwide-excluding-USA cover at mid depth, with a clean health history and a long horizon in Hong Kong. He also has an income that stops the day he stops working, children still in school, and a business with no other senior partner. Folding his family into an entry-tier company scheme might save him money on the medical side, but it would do nothing about the bigger exposure, which is his income.
On what Tom* has told us, a company scheme for the team plus separate personal protection for himself could be the better structure — his medical needs and his income needs are genuinely different problems. But whether his own family cover should move onto the company scheme or stay where it is depends on how his current plan is built and what he’d lose by switching[6]. That’s the sort of thing we’d want to work through line by line before anyone cancels anything, and it is a close cousin of the gaps that show up in group schemes more generally.
Thinking beyond the payroll: the wider family
Rajesh* comes at all of this from a different angle again. His business and his family are the same conversation. He wants cover that works in Hong Kong and regionally, at full depth, and he thinks about his adult children and grandchildren alongside his staff. He has no plans to leave Hong Kong, which changes the calculus — his horizon is measured in decades, not postings.
For someone in his position, a company scheme covering the staff, with a dependant option his family members can join at scheme rates, may work harder than either individual policies or a company-pays-everything arrangement[4]. His health history makes the underwriting basis of the scheme the critical question, not the headline premium[5]. And because part of his family sits outside the business, part of the answer will always be individual cover, where a certified plan under the Voluntary Health Insurance Scheme is worth understanding — those plans carry guaranteed renewal and, after a waiting period, cover for pre-existing conditions the policyholder didn’t know about[14]. It might suit part of the family picture very well.
We wouldn’t say for certain until we’d sat down with him and gone through who is where, and for how long.
What happens when someone leaves
Because the company owns the policy, cover normally ends when employment ends[3]. For a 28-year-old moving to a new job with its own scheme, that’s a non-event. For a 58-year-old with a claims history, it can be serious — they may struggle to buy equivalent individual cover, and any condition treated while on the scheme is now a known pre-existing condition.
Renewal: the conversation nobody prepares for
Year one is easy. Year two is where employers get caught. Group medical premiums rise for two reasons at once: everyone on the scheme is a year older, and the insurer has now seen your claims. A scheme with a heavy first-year claims record can be re-rated sharply.
The levers at renewal are the same four as at the outset — geography, excess, benefit tier, and the member list[9]. What you shouldn’t do is reflexively move insurer every year to chase the lowest number. Each move risks resetting waiting periods and re-opening underwriting for the people who can least afford it[5]. There’s a balance to strike, and it’s easier to strike with someone who has seen a few hundred renewals. If your scheme is coming up, it’s a good moment to have someone look over the numbers with you before you accept the increase.
A story from the desk
A twenty-person trading company came to us facing a renewal increase they thought was unreasonable. It wasn’t — three staff had turned 50 and there had been a significant claim. What they hadn’t realised was that their scheme carried worldwide cover including the United States, chosen four years earlier for a client relationship that had since ended. Moving the cover area to worldwide excluding the USA, and lifting the excess a step, brought the renewal back in line without touching a single benefit anyone actually used. Nothing clever — just somebody reading the schedule properly.
How the decision usually breaks down
Every company is different, but the shape of the decision tends to follow the profile of the team. Here’s roughly how we’d start the conversation depending on where you sit.
Where to start, based on your team
- 3–5 staff, all under 40: a narrow field of insurers will quote, but an entry-tier scheme on regional cover is usually very affordable[4]. Start the underwriting clock early — it only gets harder later.
- 6–15 staff, mixed ages: the sweet spot. Enough lives to attract proper group terms, small enough to design around the actual people. Worth comparing three or four panel insurers side by side.
- 16–50 staff: relaxed underwriting is realistically on the table[5]. Tiering by grade becomes worth doing, and so does negotiating on the benefit table rather than accepting an off-the-shelf one.
- Someone on the team has a health history: the underwriting basis matters more than the premium. Ask which insurers will waive or reduce medical questions at your size before you look at price at all[5].
- Maternity is a live issue: check the waiting period first, before anything else[10]. It sets the whole timeline.
- Budget is genuinely tight: raise the excess before you cut the annual limit[9]. Protect the catastrophic end and let staff carry the small stuff.
- You’re the owner: decide separately whether your own cover belongs on the scheme. It often doesn’t, and income protection is a different conversation entirely.
How You Get the Group Health Cover You Need
I’ve been arranging schemes for Hong Kong companies for a long time, and the pattern is always the same: the benefit tables look interchangeable until you read them properly, and then they don’t. Our job is to do that reading for you, and to keep going until the scheme genuinely fits the people on it.
We look at your team
Ages, family situations, where people travel, who has a history. No names needed at this stage. This is what determines which insurers will write you and on what basis.
We shape the cover
Cover area, excess, benefit depth, dependant options, tiering. We show you what each choice costs and what it buys, so the trade-offs are yours to make with the numbers in front of you.
We stay with it
Joiners, leavers, claims that need chasing, and the renewal conversation each year. You get one point of contact rather than a call centre and a reference number.
Let’s work out what your team actually needs
Tell us how many people you have, roughly how old they are, and what you’re trying to solve. We’ll come back with options you can compare properly — and an honest view on whether a group scheme is the right move for you yet.
Speak with us today
No pushy sales. Just honest advice from a licensed Hong Kong broker.
Phone: +852 3563 9771
Email: [email protected]
Office: Suite 701, Connaught Commercial Building, 185 Wan Chai Rd, Wan Chai, HK
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Frequently Asked Questions About Group Health Insurance Hong Kong
What is the minimum number of staff for a group scheme in Hong Kong?
It varies by insurer. Some on our panel will write a scheme from three lives, others want five or ten[4]. Separately, the size at which an insurer relaxes or waives medical underwriting is usually higher than the minimum to quote at all[5]. Both thresholds are worth checking before you compare prices.
Is group medical cover cheaper than individual policies?
Usually, per head, at comparable benefit levels — but the comparison is only meaningful once benefit tier, cover area and excess are matched[9]. A top-tier worldwide group scheme will cost more than an entry-tier individual plan. The design choices move the price far more than the group discount does[7].
Does a group scheme cover staff with existing health conditions?
Often yes, where the insurer applies relaxed or waived underwriting to the group[5]. That’s one of the strongest reasons small employers put a scheme in place. It depends on the insurer and the size of the group, so ask about the underwriting basis before the premium[4].
Does group medical insurance satisfy my employees’ compensation obligation?
No. They are entirely separate. The Employees’ Compensation Ordinance requires every Hong Kong employer to hold employees’ compensation insurance covering liability for work-related injury and occupational disease,[2] and the Labour Department treats failure to hold it as a criminal offence[1]. A group medical scheme is a voluntary benefit and does not replace it.
Can employees add their spouse and children?
Most schemes allow it[4]. The company decides whether it pays for dependants, shares the cost, or simply gives staff access to scheme rates and lets them pay themselves. Even the last option is valued — scheme rates and relaxed underwriting are worth having.
How long are maternity waiting periods?
They vary by insurer and plan, and they are always measured from when cover starts, not from when the pregnancy begins[10][11]. Because of that, timing matters more than almost any other factor. If maternity is a live consideration for anyone on the team, check the waiting period before comparing anything else.
What happens to a staff member’s cover when they leave?
Cover under the company scheme normally ends with employment[3]. Some insurers offer a continuation option, letting the person move to an individual plan without fresh medical underwriting[15]. It costs nothing to have that option in place and it can matter a great deal to an older employee, so it’s worth asking about at the outset.
Should the business owner be on the company scheme?
Sometimes, sometimes not. If your existing individual plan is deeper than the scheme, or you’d lose continuity by switching, staying put may be better[6]. And medical cover doesn’t address the owner’s biggest exposure, which is usually income. It’s worth treating the two as separate decisions.
Expat Insurance Editorial Team
Our articles are prepared by the Expat Insurance editorial team, drawing on the day-to-day casework of our licensed brokers and insurance specialists in Wan Chai. Between them, our advisors bring more than 60 years of combined experience arranging medical, life, business and personal insurance for expatriates and local families across Hong Kong.
Sources
- Community Legal Information Centre (CLIC), Q12: Are employers obliged to take out compensation insurance policies for all employees?: establishes that "regardless of whether the employees are working full-time or part-time (including part-time domestic helpers and summer job workers, etc.), employers are required…to have valid insurance policies taken out to cover employers’ liabilities", that non-compliance carries a maximum fine of HK$100,000 and two years’ imprisonment, and that deducting the insurance cost from an employee’s earnings carries a further fine of HK$10,000 and six months’ imprisonment.
- Labour Department, The Employees’ Compensation Ordinance, Cap. 282 — FAQ: states that "no employer shall employ any employee in any employment unless there is in force a policy of insurance to cover his liabilities under the laws (including the common law) for injuries at work in respect of all his employees, irrespective of the length of employment contract or working hours, full-time or part-time employment", with a maximum fine of HK$100,000 and imprisonment for two years on conviction, plus a surcharge payable to the Employees Compensation Assistance Fund Board.
- Bupa Hong Kong, Do I need individual medical insurance when I’m already covered by group medical insurance?: confirms that group cover is tied to employment — "when employees change jobs or become unemployed, there will be a coverage gap as they’re no longer protected by group medical insurance" — and that group cover is typically partial, citing an average standard-ward group claim of HK$55,742 reimbursed at about 72%.
- MSIG Insurance (Hong Kong), SME Group Medical Insurance: proves the small-employer headcount thresholds and scheme shape — a minimum of 2 employees to enrol, "individual health declarations are not required for companies with 5 or more employees", six plan levels with room-and-board limits of HK$330–4,100 a day, optional outpatient (100% or 80% reimbursement) and optional dental of HK$1,060–10,600 a year, dependant cover for spouses and for unmarried children from 15 days to 17 (or 26 in full-time education), and pregnancy and childbirth listed as a major exclusion on the base plan.
- William Russell, Medical Underwriting For Businesses: sets out the four group underwriting bases (Full Medical Underwriting, Moratorium, Continued Personal Medical Exclusions, Medical History Disregarded), confirms that "if you require cover for pre-existing medical conditions and have 5 or more employees on the scheme, we can also consider offering cover with Medical History Disregarded (MHD)", that MHD "can provide cover for all pre-existing conditions — including chronic conditions", that no short medical declaration is needed at 100+ employees, that moratorium excludes pre-existing conditions for 24 months, and that switching insurer can preserve existing terms and start dates via CPME.
- MSIG Insurance (Hong Kong), Knowing the difference between medical insurance and group medical insurance: confirms that on joining an employer scheme "you usually won’t need to take a medical examination or provide any medical history to join the group insurance plan", and that benefit levels vary widely between employers, with some providing only basic cover and others adding benefits such as dental.
- Expat Insurance provider pricing file, IMG GPMI Master Rates (1 April 2026): the source of the premium ranges quoted in this article. Client confidential information. Our policy and pricing documents are shown to clients in full during the advisory process, so you see every option we put in front of you.
- William Russell, Areas Of Health Insurance Cover Explained For Expats: proves how cover areas are structured and priced — the widest zone gives "full cover for private healthcare in all countries except the USA", USA cover on that zone is restricted to US$50,000 for accident and emergency treatment on temporary trips of no more than 45 days, and "the wider your geographical cover, the more expensive your premium", with narrower zones saving up to 20%, 30% and 40%.
- William Russell, Helping You Save On Your Health Insurance Premium: confirms the direction and scale of the main premium levers — increasing the excess saves "up to 35%", restricting the area of cover saves up to 40%, moving down a plan level saves up to 30%, downgrading room type saves 8–10%, and paying annually rather than monthly saves up to 5%.
- MSIG Insurance (Hong Kong), What is "Waiting Period"?: states that the waiting period for the Optional Maternity Benefit is 12 months, and explains that claims falling within a waiting period are not payable.
- William Russell, Waiting Periods: confirms that pregnancy care and childbirth carry a 12-month waiting period, that "a waiting period is the duration you must be insured continuously by your health insurance policy before you can claim for certain benefits", and that the clock starts as soon as the policy starts — not when the pregnancy begins.
- Hospital Authority, Fees and Charges: publishes the current public hospital charges for Eligible Persons effective 1 January 2026 — HK$400 per Accident & Emergency attendance, HK$300 per day in an acute general bed, and HK$250 per specialist clinic attendance plus HK$20 per drug item — and defines Eligible Persons as holders of a Hong Kong Identity Card issued under the Registration of Persons Ordinance (Cap. 177) with valid status, Hong Kong resident children under 11, and others approved by the Hospital Authority.
- MSIG Insurance (Hong Kong), Flexible Group Medical Insurance plans help SMEs with staff retention: supports the retention argument — a comprehensive group medical plan is "crucial for lifting a start-up or SME’s competitiveness in attracting talent", medical insurance is "among the perks that employees care most about", and employees satisfied with their benefits "are less likely to look for greener pastures".
- Voluntary Health Insurance Scheme, Consumer Corner — Frequently Asked Questions: confirms the two VHIS features cited — "guaranteed renewal up to age of 100 years" that applies "irrespective of whether or not your health condition has changed after the policy is in force", and that "all Certified Plans will provide partial coverage of unknown pre-existing conditions in the second and third year after policy inception, at 25% and 50% respectively", with full 100% coverage from the fourth year onwards.
- MSIG Insurance (Hong Kong), Employee Top Up Medical Insurance: proves that a continuation route without fresh health assessment exists — "no underwriting is required for eligible existing members of an MSIG Group Medical Insurance who can enjoy a simple application" — and that the plan is designed so there is "no gap in protection", while noting the restriction that no further benefit upgrades or transfers are permitted after enrolment.
Insurance products, benefit rules, official fees and legislation all change over time, and every figure quoted here reflects the sources listed above as they stood at the time of writing. This article is general information only. It is not personal advice and it is not a recommendation of any product or insurer — the right answer for your company depends entirely on your own circumstances, your team and your budget. Our policy and pricing documents are client confidential and are shown to clients in full during the advisory process, so you have complete transparency on every option we present. Call +852 3563 9771, email [email protected], or use our contact form.
