Choosing insurance is not an easy decision. I spent quite nice time to check roughly 20 insurers, compared their benefits, exchanged emails and asked questions but there is no best insurance option which would suit everyone. There are certain things to consider and pre-existing conditions are one of them.
I can recommend you website where you can easily download most of the leading expat insurance providers brochures for your own comparison:
http://www.medibroker.com/about-april-m ... iders.html
(you click on the name and then on the left side you can download a brochure).
I have not used MediBroker to purchase the insurance, although their website was certainly helpful to obtain brochures / premiums. As for deductibles, I came across two options used by insurance companies:
- fixed amount that you pay towards your treatment per year (e.g. BUPA )
- amount that you pay towards treatment per each medical condition per insurance year
In first scenario you choose an amount from predefined ones, e.g. US$1000. It means that regardless of how many medical conditions you will have, you will always pay first $1000 out of pocket. In second example, deductible is lower by default (e.g. US$100) but you pay it first for each medical condition. So if you have one medical condition you are better with the second option.
You can always choose no deductible option but it is very expensive and doesn't make much sense.
I have not considered local insurance options. When I roughly checked the offers, they had either very low coverages (S$100). I don't understand also in local offers why they exclude GST... So if you go to hospital, and the total bill will be 100k + GST, you have to pay 7k.
If someone think S$100k / year is a good enough insurance here, then think twice. Simple wrist surgery $6k, minimally invasive back surgery $35k (based on my experiences) but that's nothing and perfectly fine if everything goes well. The real costs kick in if you have a heart attack (e.g. during surgery) or some serious complications.
Most of the insurance providers work on reimbursement basis for out-patient claims and pre-authorization (letter of guarantee, direct settlement) on scheduled surgeries. In emergency cases when you are admitted to hospital they usually can arrange direct settlement as well upon being informed.