My 2-year old son was hospitalized again last week and it got me thinking about whether it makes good sense to get a health card.
When my husband and I decided to enroll the entire family into his company’s health program, we did it mostly for our peace of mind and not based on some proof from an Excel worksheet that it will eventually pay off. Unless you know how often your children are going to get sick, I don’t see any way of finding out exactly if the P1,500 per month expense for all our health cards will be worth it.
Based on simple computations for 2007, it appears that getting a health card worked for us – at least for last year. Consider the figures:
Our annual payment (Feb. 2007 to Feb. 2008) amounted to = P18,000
All our hospital bills for the period including doctor consultations covered by the HMO = P35,774
Dental consultations and cleaning = P2,700
Total expenses versus payments = P38,474 versus P18,000
Not bad. I’m sticking with an HMO despite some bad rap on the industry in the media. I will just have to make sure I only get one with good reputation. For those who are looking for a good HMO, most of the well-known companies are listed in this website’s directory. The Department of Health website also has this PDF file of HMOs.
February 28th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
Go for a good HMO if you can afford it and maximize usage by having regular check ups kahit small problem only. Maybe the loopholes tony mentioned are the pre-existing illness. If you have good HR n your company, they should be able to get a good deal. Am not working with HMO but made good use of it. I got cancer and fortunately, it took care of my medical
February 28th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
i have experienced a lot of HMO from my but what i can recommend best is Medicard. They are very accommodating to the member’s needs.
February 28th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
I’ve a medicard and whenever I get sick I can depend on them. I also got one for my mom and she’s satisfied with their services.
February 28th, 2008 at 11:14 am
salve, what’s your HMO?
February 28th, 2008 at 10:44 am
I’m “lugi” when it comes to HMO. i’ve yet to use it but it’s ok, my company’s paying for it
plus one of my dependents…
it’s true, i had to leave a pricey specialist for another since he’s not accredited by our HMO.