Best health insurance for Bali residents?

Check out the banks, they all do insurance for locals but their prices are a lot cheaper than expat deals.
Many people claim Indonesian hospitals are rubbish (so they go to Singapore for treatment) but that simply isn't true of the many top quality places in this country.

Indeed I've heard about going to Singapore for treatment. Is there any insurance that I could get coverage in Indonesia and Singapore at the same time?

I've used William Russell for all the 19 years I've been living on Bali.  They are excellent and I know a number of other expats who use them as well.

You can deal direct or use a broker such as "Bali Medical Insurance."

http://balimedicalinsurance.com/

You can customize your coverage to suit your needs and any licensed hospital will be covered. 

Once particular great feature is called assignment of benefit.  That means that the hospital will direct bill William Russell during your hospital stay thus avoiding the need for you to hand over your credit card or come up with cash during your hospitalization.

You can get an online quote here:

https://www.william-russell.com/?gclid= … wtEALw_wcB

Thank you, will definitely check them out. Thank you.

I would strongly suggest posters avoid spammers that post here.
If they refuse to follow simple rules, can you trust them with your money?

Hi

Did you get health insurance once you moved to Bali or did you get it before you moved?  Thanks!

I'm pretty much set to go with William Russell for my first year there... will be moving im May and already contacted them for quotes, for now I'm insured by my company.

FOQA wrote:

I'm pretty much set to go with William Russell for my first year there... will be moving im May and already contacted them for quotes, for now I'm insured by my company.

What is the best way to contact them?

https://www.william-russell.com/indones … insurance/

Website, https://www.william-russell.com there you can get quotes which are not very different from what you can get directly by calling them.

I checked it out.  Almost $500 total for my wife and I.  We are both 52.  Didn't realize it would be that expensive.

500 per month?
If so, try the banks and pop into a local hospital to find out names of local insurers.
You pay a lot less for non-expat insurance policies but you won't get the repatriation bits

Fred wrote:

500 per month?
If so, try the banks and pop into a local hospital to find out names of local insurers.
You pay a lot less for non-expat insurance policies but you won't get the repatriation bits

Does anyone have an idea of how much it might cost for a couple who are both 52?

What do you mean by repatriation bits?

Thought I'd bring up the topic of medical insurance again.

Many of my wife's local friends used BPJS in the past but have totally given up on it since they say the service is so crap.

So the three companies that commonly provide medical insurance appear to be Allianz, Prudential and AXA. One of my wife's friends works for Allianz and she advises that AXA is not good but the other two are alright. She also suggests Prudential as being better than Allianz.

I am over 60 so the premiums get a lot higher. From what I understand, it would cost around Rp3 million per month for Prudential's best package with private room etc, Rp1.5 million per month for a shared room, and Rp1 million per month for hospitalization in a ward with 4 beds. And if I choose the cheapest one, I can always upgrade to a private room and pay the difference. So this seems to make the best sense. For my wife and children it will be a lot cheaper.

I also contacted my old insurance agent in Malaysia. I used to pay for my whole family for about Rp14 million a year with private room and full coverage. That worked great when I had a slipped disc operation that cost around Rp70 million and which the insurance company paid as I was checking out of the hospital.

The purpose of contacting her was to see if there was any kind of package that would cover me here in Indonesia. But the only overseas package she could offer was for coverage throughout Asia where the very cheapest package would cost Rp87 million per year. That was plan 5. The premiums for plan 1 to 4 were just even more silly money. For example, plan 1 for just me alone would cost Rp157 million per year.

So it seems that I will be insuring my family with Prudential.

Take a look at the banks, some offer pretty decent insurance
I'm fortunate as my company now covers my family but I still have to pay BPJS for myself as it's a legal requirement whilst working here but I can claim around 75/80% back every year
Expat contractors pay huge amounts towards BPJS the least I've paid in a month is around US$300 equivalent but is always higher

Hi Ubudian,

Thanks for your feedback.
I'm intending to be an Ubudian expat within the next two to three months. I have never had private health insurance before; checked out the comparative WR policy options. A quick comparison of a few other companies leads me to believe the policy prices are comparatively reasonable.
Would you say this is the case?
Do you have any anecdotal experiences that you may wish to share regarding health experiences and responses in Bali that may be helpful to new expats?

Thank you.

I know to avoid expat policies because the price is usually way too high. Try the banks - They all have alternatives at far better prices.

To Fred's point, I think you'll find that none of those health plans offered by banks include coverage for air ambulance medical evacuation.  I could be wrong about that, but the last time I took a good look at those policies, they didn't, or, it could be optionally added via a rider, but with a significant increase in premium.

In the “old days” virtually 99% of expats based on Bali would have air ambulance coverage, as either Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore, or, Bumrungrad in Bangkok would be their hospital of choice for any sort of major health issues.  Today is different in that that a number of excellent new hospitals can be found in Bali, including the international wing of RS Sanglah. 

Another potential problem area when it comes to bank policies is the all import “assignment of benefits” clause.  William Russell policies all have this feature, and it's something very important to consider.  What this feature allows is that rather than the hospital demanding periodic payments during the course of a hospital stay, they will bill William Russell directly.  This can have great advantages, none the least of which is not having cash on hand drained during your hospital confinement, or credit card bills mounting.  Another possible snag here however is that any particular hospital may, or may not accept assignment of benefits from a policy provider that isn't prompt and easy for the hospital to work with.  I've never heard of a hospital in Bali not accepting assignment of benefits from William Russell. 

The beauty of William Russell is that providing medical care insurance for folks living abroad is their specialty, and they have an excellent reputation world wide.  Their premiums are very competitive.  One “trick” that any expat should use is to select a high out of pocket deductible.  A great deal can be saved on your premiums by having a deductible of say US $500.00 rather than US $100.00.  It only makes sense to think of your insurance plan as “catastrophic” coverage, viz, those medical situations where the claim is going to be in multiple of thousands of dollars. 

In my “prior life” going way, way back, I was an actuarial medical underwriter for the Prudential (USA, aka, The Rock).  In that regard my own choices regarding medical insurance have been based on opinions and experiences formulated a long while ago.   As I mentioned in an earlier post, I've been with WR since day one of moving to Bali…and that's now 21 years ago.  I've been nothing but totally satisfied with them, and I've never heard any “expat horror” stories that involved them.

Good luck with your move to Bali!   

Thanks Ubudian.
What is the benefit of paying high out of pocket deductibles? and is any of this reimbursed?

The benefit is lower premiums. 

The greatest cost to insurance companies doesn't lie with their claim payments, but rather the costs to the company in processing claims. 

If you want your insurance to cover "nickel/dime" claims, you'll end up paying Rolls Royce premiums. 

The smart money when it comes to medical insurance is to think of it only as catastrophic coverage. 

If you go on the William Russell web site, you can play around with this and price out various plans with various deductibles. 

Cheers!   

Thanks again Ubudian, I'll re-check WR web site.

Sama, sama!