My employer, moto accident, didn't pay govt health insurance

Not sure of your exact situation, your letter was a bit difficult to understand. But the government mandated here iv Vietnam is at best useless and and at worst fraud. I tried to use mine and it only covered the death ward on the hospital first floor. Everything that was useful at all was on the upper floors, where they would not accept my "insurance" at all. I am currently looking at getting expat health insurance.

If that wasn't bad enough, the Vietnamese hospitals are horrible. I paid 1 million dong to get a dire diagnosis. AT the advice of a Vietnamese friend, i went to an international hospital to get a second opinion. There I got a real American doctor who, after getting sonograms of my legs ( I had a blood clot that the Vietnamese hospital told me was getting worse) said that i was fine, i had a blood clot no longer and that i needed to get off all of the expensive and dangerous anti-clot medications I was on immediately. I had to pay 3.25 million to the this diagnosis but now that i am off Xarelto (anti-blood clotting drug) the visit will pay for itself in 6 weeks. So you need expat insurance, even though it is expensive.

As to suing anybody to pay for your medical bills, I doubt that will ever happen in Vietnam. Everybody is on their own here.

hope this long reply was at least a little helpful, if not discouraging.

Yeah, kind of what i expected.

My gf said it's not worth even getting private insurance as the doctors and nurses don't get bribes from the insurers so they are more likely to just leave you to die whilst they treat more lucrative patients.

Be careful of warfarin and similar drugs, they have negative effects on your eyes, like retinal detachments etc.

I would tend to disagree with your first statement, at least at the international hospital I went to (Columbia Asia on Pasteur street). They showed me a list of accepted insurances and i felt quite confident they are an honest organization.

Although much more expensive than Warfarin, I chose to take Xarelto. No monitoring is needed when on this drug. It costed me over 2 million a month for the 4 months i took it. But what worried me more is there is no antidote for Xarelto, meaning that if i got into even a minor motorbike accident i would have most likely bled or hemorrhaged to death. I am soooo glad my blood clot is gone and i no longer need the drug. If I didn't go to Columbia Asia and stayed with the diagnosis from the useless Vietnamese hospital, i would have probably been taking Xarelto forever.

You have to apply for a TRC, its not automatically given, that is unless the laws have changed.

I did apply for a trc, they said they wouldn't give me one despite having a work permit.

There are no international hospitals where I live. The main hospital, which is a bloodbath, tried to make me go to Saigon and an international hospital, but I pulled a few strings and got the best in the city to operate on me instead.

I don't know what kind of insurance you have?
But if you drive a motorbike without licence in Vietnam, it's illegal and no private insurance pays for your accident.

That's what I was asking about.  By law,  my employer should have enrolled me in the government healthcare system,  paying 16.5 percent of my salary to it.  He did nothing of the kind

Also,  rules on driving licences seem to have changed recently also.  Foreign licences are,  supposedly,  now accepted if they are translated and notarised as mine are.

Well licenses rules have not changed as far as I know... only thing they do accept are IDPs while getting yours translated and notarized is good it is same as no license at all. You need to get one transferred to Vietnamese license.

I understand. You mean Social Health Insurance (SHI) supplied by Gov.
It covers for treatments in state owned hospitals only (except for High-class/International/Private section in a Government Hospital and Maternity packages). The rate of cover is 100% for the hospital named in your insurance card; 30% for others. Actually, the benefits of Gov plan are very poor.
Even if you had Gov health insurance in Vietnam, you wouldn't have been paid if you reached the wrong place.
In Vietnam, most Expatriates buy Private Health Insurance plans which cover for accidents, treatment for illness, sickness, diseases. And I think you should have.

MasterofDisaster wrote:

That's what I was asking about.  By law,  my employer should have enrolled me in the government healthcare system,  paying 16.5 percent of my salary to it.  He did nothing of the kind

Did your employer mention it in your Service Contract?
A genuine Contract is usually bilingual with a red stamp on it.
Also, if your Contract is for a part-time or temporary/visiting position (hourly paid), your employer may not give you any insurance cover.

Note, the Work Permit doesn't mention  part-time or full-time employment. It depends on the type of contract you have signed.
I know a couple of reputable VN employers who do the same with their expat  part-timers. All of them have their legit WPs arranged by the same employers.

1 You neither have a Vietnamese licence or an International Driving Permit (IDP); notarised documents are unacceptable.

Any insurance you have will be invalid - read the terms and conditions very carefully.

2. Any contract in Vietnam is useless - there is no fair legal infrastructure. The system is based on bribes.

Law is based on facts and not feelings.

End of....

Don't rely on any government-type insurance, though it costs very little and the police like to see it. Yes, it's useless. Get a solid one of your own, and check it against coverage for things like bike accidents and whatever riding licences you have.

You're still in the third world, no matter what the lower-middle-income message is the government likes to give and the sort of guarantees you think you could expect from compulsory stuff (and that's really none).

Rob

Yes, my company forces me to buy the government run insurance and about the nicest thing I can say about it is that it is a total fraud. I tried to use it once - the hospital said that the insurance is only covered for services on the hospital's first floor. The first floor of the hospital is where poor patients live out their last days. The care there is non-existent. I had to pay 800,000 dong to the hospital as I elected to use services on a floor where there were actually "doctors". I say that in quotes as I got a dire diagnosis from them that I had blood clots, varicose veins and that my blood was "running backwards" .

At the urging of a vietnamese friend I went to ColumbiaAsia (an international hospital) where I was assigned a real doctor who was educated in the United States. After taking sonograms there the doctor said that I was fine, no blood clots, varicose veins, no nothing. I am now off a very dangerous anti clotting drug Xarelto that I used to get rid of a blood clot many months earlier. Although the ColumbiaAsia visit cost 3.25 million dong, it wa the best 3.25 million dong I ever spent.

Vietnam is a very nice place, but a few things, like their hospitals are to be avoided at all costs.

pilotadamp wrote:

1 You neither have a Vietnamese license or an International Driving Permit (IDP); notarized documents are unacceptable.

Any insurance you have will be invalid - read the terms and conditions very carefully.

2. Any contract in Vietnam is useless - there is no fair legal infrastructure. The system is based on bribes.
  *** This is the bottom line - like it or not, NO contract in Vietnam is even worth the paper it was written on!
Law is based on facts and not feelings.

End of....

Just out of curiosity,  what does the little red and yellow 85k insurance u have to buy cover and police like to see.  Can't imagine it covers much for four bux.

Thanks everyone,  kinda,  crapilly what I expected.

Still,  not really worth getting a licence  and therefore insurance as it's tied to the visa and the corrupt immigration mafia refused to give trcs in Quy Nhon.

The VND 85k is third party insurance which covers you if you have an accident and have to pay another's hospital bill. It ONLY works if you call the police to an accident and you request a police report. 

As always, the local mafia will try and prevent you calling the police and usually it is better to get back in your bike quickly and run - I am NOT joking. Vietnamese will try to milk you for VND millions

I would strongly advise that you get a local licence - any western issued insurance that you may have will be void without it!

Yeh.  But just not worth the hassle for a few months,  then I'd have to do it again.

Don't even know if ur years insurance is valid if u change visa and driving license  number?

So u would pay a year for a few months...

I kinda did a high speed tyre kiss with this big piaggio.  I hit the deck but the three fat unhelmeted women on the bike that pulled in front of me carried on as normal.

Kinda curious if I would be facing huge jail time  as is the norm in Asia,  as I don't have a licence,  can't pay their medical fees and I'm white.