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Medical Insurance for Pre-existing illnesses

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Myrona
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Medical Insurance for Pre-existing illnesses

Post by Myrona » Thu, 07 May 2009 3:17 pm

Hi to all....

I have been offered a position in Singapore working for the Eye institute and will be coming with a person who has had Type I Diabetes for about 18 years. We are hoping to get medical insurance here but understand that most insurers don't cover pre-existing. Coming from Australia, after spending one year in HK (whose medical coverage for those holding HKID cards is pretty good regardless of any pre-existing illnesses) - I'm concern about the very expensive medical bills we may need to pay if a hospital stay was required or even if day-to-day medication was required. We brought medicine to HK from Australia before we knew about the healthcare system set up there but generally want to avoid doing this again.

Are there any medical insurance companies that are willing to cover pre-existing illnesses and if not, is the public health system similar to that in Australia and HK that won't cost an arm and a leg either.

Thanks in advance....and I apologise if this has been brought up before - just send me to the right thread if it has.
Last edited by Myrona on Thu, 07 May 2009 4:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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sundaymorningstaple
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Post by sundaymorningstaple » Thu, 07 May 2009 4:11 pm

The public health system is competitive but unless you are a PR or citizen you have to pay full unsubsidized rates which are comparable to private hospitals. I doubt too many insurance companies will insure pre-existing conditions. Doesn't make any sense unless they charge you premiums that are somewhere in the stratosphere.
SOME PEOPLE TRY TO TURN BACK THEIR ODOMETERS. NOT ME. I WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW WHY I LOOK THIS WAY. I'VE TRAVELED A LONG WAY, AND SOME OF THE ROADS WEREN'T PAVED. ~ Will Rogers

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sierra2469alpha
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Post by sierra2469alpha » Thu, 07 May 2009 4:54 pm

Myrona - welcome to the forums.

I'm not sure if you are being posted by an AUS company or not, or the nature/tenure of your position, but in some cases an employer will pay for medical insurance on a reciprocity basis - meaning you will not be out of pocket for the period of your posting, assuming you have equivalent cover back in AUS.

If that isn't going to work, you *might* want to try insuring yourself as an expat in AUS before you get deployed here. FWIW, QBE is by far the cheapest (and yes, I have done tons of research). Not cheap, but all those insurance peeps will be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes!!!

QBE will insure pre-existing - they just uplift the excess on the policy for the individual concerned, should that condition trigger again.

HTH, Mr. P

Myrona
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Post by Myrona » Fri, 15 May 2009 10:01 am

Sorry about the late reply...

Thanks for the heads up sierra.... I'll be employed as a local so no fancy expat packages for moi. We do have full coverage with MBF at home which is suspended at the moment as I'm currently posted in HK and as I said above don't really require it considering the cost of medical here. I will certainly see about insuring ourselves from home before arriving if this will be a far more cheaper option than insuring ourselves in Singapore....

Out of curiosity - who are the health insurance providers in Singapore?

katein
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Post by katein » Thu, 28 May 2009 10:01 pm

if you got a valid working pass and without pre-existing condition you can easily get full coverage less than $500 a year if you are below 40 years old. For pre-existing condition, normally they will look into individual case, normally they will exclude the existing condition.

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