# Health Insurance in China and Maternity



## DMons (Nov 27, 2012)

My wife and I just found out that we are pregnant. The baby is due in July, and we are planning on moving to China in January for work. We have health insurance in the here in the states and are looking at health insurance plans for when we move to china. We are very concerned with having a baby in China and want to make sure we are insured should anything go wrong. I know that many health insurance plans would look at our pregnancy as a pre-existing condition and deny us coverage... but are there any other plans out there that would work for us? 

We'd love to hear any advice!

DMons


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## lorgnette (Dec 19, 2010)

Even with insurance plans for pregnancy incidents, unless your wife speaks Chinese dialects or Mandarin extremely well then attending prenatal, labor and after delivery treatments will be tough. How will she communicate her needs and expectations to the chain of nurses, midwifes, attendants, doctors etc esp when staff and facilities vary between local, provincial, regional or urban hospitals/clinics? 

Giving birth should not be a stressful but pleasurable occasion when she is expecting her/your first child. 

For personal health assurance rather than worry on financial compensation from insurance, I would strongly advised that you consider delaying your trip or wife joins you after birth.


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## cschrd2 (Oct 31, 2011)

Depends what insurance plans you take. An international insurance will cover all cost even for second opinion in Hongkong or Singapore. The Heath care itself depends a lot per city. In shanghai there are excellent local hospitals (Ruijin & Huashan) that are good service and most bilingual medical staff ( not the nurses though). A couple of my friends got their kids here and had no issues, some others went to Hongkong. Think that's a personal thing. Must say over the last 10 years health care here has improved a lot (personal experience) and one can get the same service and support as long as the money is there. Even the number of after birth hotels (places where the mother can strengthen after delivery) is increasing rapidly in the big cities.


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