Asia Holiday: Considering Healthcare Coverage Options when Travelling the Orient
The wonders of Asia hold an abundance of new and exciting experiences for the willing traveller in us all. The region is the second most visited in the world behind Europe, sharing its food, culture, and history with over 270 million tourists a year.
Many of you have probably thought about taking the leap to see what places like Singapore, Thailand, and Hong Kong have to offer and, while throwing caution to the wind can seem like a liberating way to go about it, it always feels more comfortable to be well prepared in the event something unexpected happens.
For those of you concerned about healthcare in Asia, Pacific Prime Singapore Health Insurance Brokers has this handy guide about what to expect in terms of medical care in the Orient.
Healthcare in Asia: a brief overview
The state of healthcare in Asia can be best described as wildly variable; with countries like Singapore being world leaders in medical research and technology, while countries like China continue to push investment in their local health systems to bring them up to par with Western levels of care.
With the spread in quality, there’s similarly a large disparity in the cost of healthcare around the region. Out of pocket fees for care can range from the relatively inexpensive medical tourism hub in Thailand, to the world’s second most expensive healthcare system in the world in Hong Kong.
Here are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind about Asia:
Standard of healthcare
As mentioned, the more developed nations of Singapore and Hong Kong can provide you with medical care either on the same level or better than what you might expect to receive back home.
Many of their medical staff and experts are foreign trained, while the facilities at both public and private hospitals are of a high standard.
Other countries, like Thailand, also feature impressive facilities in their healthcare systems – however these state of the art hospitals are often only found in the major cities like Bangkok, leaving those trekking around the less beaten path a bit further from good quality care.
The Philippines has a more clear two-tiered system, where private sector facilities are the recommended way to go for tourists and travellers.
Costs in Asia
The cost of healthcare in Asian countries will be linked to the quality of care you will be provided with, as can be expected anywhere in the world.
It’s highly recommended to obtain some form of insurance whilst travelling, be it travel or international insurance, as the costs to the uninsured receiving care can be relatively expensive anywhere in the region.
Hong Kong, with its highly developed public and private health systems, has very little difference in cost between the sectors. An in-patient visit at a private hospital charge is around US $720 per day, while the same fee at a public hospital will cost US $600.
In a Singaporean private hospital, knee replacement surgery can set you back up to US $18,000.
A knee replacement in Thailand, however, will cost you around US $13,000 and a hip replacement can cost US $20,000, much lower than the average US $39,000 charge in the United States.
For those of you not interested in elective surgery, it’s worth bearing in mind that these costs may still apply to you following an accident during your travels.
English speakers in Asia
As a general rule of thumb, visitors can expect to find English speakers in any of the private healthcare systems in Asia. In the more developed countries, as well as those with established medical tourism industries, many of the staff will have been trained in the West and will have fairly good to impeccable English as they are trained overseas.
In the public systems of some countries, like Singapore, English-speakers are much easier to come by than in Thailand or Indonesia. Hong Kong, even with previously having been a British colony, has multilingual medical staffs that speak Cantonese, Mandarin, and English – although the standard of English is not what it once was.
The likelihood of receiving care from someone with a good understanding of English is therefore tied to the cost you’re willing to pay for care; in many areas the private sector is generally a lot better for English-speaking travellers than public hospitals can be.
Insurance solutions for Asia
If you have a trip to Asia planned and you’d like to know more about either travel or international health insurance options while you’re abroad, Pacific Prime Singapore has been serving clients for more than 15 years.
Their expert staff can provide a range of coverage options for healthcare in Asia, whether you’re going for a short or long holiday. Contact Pacific Prime Singapore today for your free quote!
Category: Travel
