Health insurance companies are profit-making entities which exist to help reduce the fear people may have at not being able to pay generally POTENTIAL medical bills that are out of one’s budget.
Agreed, it would be terrible to be in an accident or have a serious illness and incur high fees for the needed treatment (without adequate insurance) but if we are playing the odds, having such an accident is extremely unlikely, although it is possible.
I work for someone who holds a US passport who purchases an insurance plan for his foreign employees which is so pathetic I opted out straightaway as I did the math and saw how pointless it was to pay the premium. The problem with that plan without naming names is that if you have any serious illness or emergency it would not cover you! For example, cancer would not be covered if you got it. This boss, unfortunately, receives kickbacks from the insurance company so he pushes this onto the employees.
I agree with the idea that the foreign clinics are charging an arm and a leg for services which may be provided by medical staff that has been rejected in their home countries or here in China. I would definitely prefer to be seen by a doctor who exercises his/her area of expertise say 50 times a day vs a few times in a month or year! A girlfriend and I recently had health exams at a local regional hospital. I paid cash for everything up front and while the whole endeavour was quite different from what would happen in my home country, I felt it was overall a more thorough exam at about 10% of the price overseas. This is not, however, why we buy insurance.
We need insurance for major events, should they occur.
I seriously do not understand the thinking of insurance companies, usually making women pay a year premium before covering maternity. If a woman is happy with the company she will stay with it, and guess what – that baby and that baby’s family is very likely to be buying insurance one day as well. I guess insurance companies don’t value future investors enough to cover women who are pregnant or would like to have babies soon – which should not be such a major expense as it is a NORMAL part of human health and life and NOT an illness. In fact I believe it should be factored in to ALL insurance schemes as it is a NORMAL thing and not a pre-existing condition, not a disease and wow – could even make money in the future for the insurance company. Hmmmm just food for thought.
Best of luck to us all and may we not have to rush to an emergency room in the middle of the night!
