Job Discussion Forums

[choudoufu]

you want health coverage? buy yourself an expat policy with very limited
time allowed in the usa (or no usa coverage). take the highest possible
deductible. you should be able to find something in the $600-800 range.
i've got 30 days max in the usa, with a $2K per event deductible, and still
includes repatriation.

i use the 1680 rmb allowance to partially pay the premium. i do not have
picc, just pay for everything out of pocket. if something comes in under
$2K, i can afford to eat that.

health "care" and medicines are cheap in asia. a good estimate is 10% of the
us medical cost. that would include flights to bangkok or new delhi, cause
you normally don't want your surgery done in china.

basic stuff no problem. that $750 mri will cost you $50 here. visit the
doctor? 50 cents, or a whole dollar if you want the head surgeon. how
about an ultrasound? $400 in the us, $35 here. wanna spend the night
in the hospital? private suite in the VIP ward, about $100. or you can
choose a semi-private room on the regular folks wing for $7.

my heart surgery in india cost $12K ---- including the flights and the resort
on the beach. cost in the usa? $150,000-$200,000.

my nasal surgery in kunming cost $1000 --- including hospital stay and
medicines and follow-ups. my sister had the same operation in the us
last year, insurance covered most, but her co-pay was just over $1000.

[choudoufu]

[rogerwilco]

[SledgeCleaver]

WELL ALL RIGHT, CAN OPENER IT IS THEN

JUST PUT IT THROUGH THAT HOLE IN MY STOMACH AND WIGGLE IT AROUND SOME, THAT'S THE TICKET

[roadwalker]

I think you'll find the healthcare to be a mixture of professional modern and medieval. To get the standard Residence Permit medical check, the top hospital in my smallish city is now certified by the province (Guangdong). But to get to all of the departments that run the battery of tests you have to go from the old wing to the new wing and back several times. They have modern equipment but you need to step over families in the hallways to get there at times. I think I've gotten decent care when I needed it in China, but I've never had anything too complicated. My PICC insurance (RMB 1800/year I think) isn't restricted to certain hospitals so far as I know. It IS restricted to China and probably to the mainland.

[dakelei]

The lack of decent healthcare is rapidly becoming my #1 beef with the third tier city in which I currently find myself. I'll be 53 in May and have been healthy as a horse most of my life but in the last year I've developed a few issues and at one point had to spend a night in the hospital here. Scared the bejesus out of me, honestly. There will be those who dispute this, I know, but if you aren't already here and know you have health issues my strong advice is to avoid China.

[choudoufu]

i posted this a few years ago........

"imagine it's 3am, you're in a decent-sized town of maybe 300k,
you feel a bit strange, check your pulse, you're skipping beats.
walk to the main gate of the apartment complex, no taxis, so
walk the 2km to the main hospital (affiliated with the medical
college), wake up the duty nurse, who then has to locate the
on-call doctor who is sleeping on a gurney in one of the exam
rooms. the doctor is unable to find the clip-on/tape-on leads
for the ekg, and the suction cups don't work due to incredibly
sexy chest hair. he could at least just listen to your heartbeat,
yes? no. um, we don't have a stethoscope. the following day
you buy two stethoscopes from the medical supply store
across from the hospital for 19 rmb each, and donate one to
the emergency room. for next time. you also consider
shaving your chest."

this was also the hospital where:

1. the doctors were unable to properly read an echocardiogram

2. the pharmacy sold me fake medicine (warfarin)

3. upon my return from india, the head surgeon asked why i didn't
have my surgery there........they were planning to start offering that
particular procedure.....i coulda been the first!

[fred13331]

[fred13331]

I really don't understand all the comments, no-one on here ever seems to have a good thing to say about uni's.

My Uni pays an average 10K a month. 5% raise a year. Stay a while, earn more, lots of guys have been here 10+ years. Lots of people work for the partner universities and get western salaries. Nearly everyone else works more than the 10 to 16 hours the uni requires of them. The uni often informs us of people looking for our part-time services. If you are happy to to 25 to 30 hours you can make 20K easily. I work for them 30 weeks a year, 14 hours a week, but get paid 12 monthly salaries.For the next 12 weeks I am doing 40 hours, including 26 hours of non university teaching. I will be knackered before it finishes, but, I'll be making good bank.

The health coverage works - I got 18K back on a 20 K bill for a shattered clavicle. Handed the receipts to the IO, 6 weeks later, money transferred to my account. I was free to choose my own hospital. The docs recommended a new type of titanium plate which was 6k more expensive - we rang the IO, the said 'sure, whatever the docs think'. These boards are full of negativity - but there are plenty of good jobs in China.

Now, someone will come on and call this a bragging post. Go ahead, knock yourself out

[muffintop]

[dakelei]

I have very few complaints about my uni job. I do 16 hours a week, all English Conversation classes filled with mostly cooperative and nice students. I earn 7000RMB a month. It's the city I live in that's a drag. It's Tier 3 but may as well be Tier 6. Boring and backwoods but tolerable enough to keep me here for 3 years so far. I do quite well by local standards. I'm very often offered other work and, if money is what I was seeking, I'm pretty sure I could double my salary. My attitude is generally "If I wanted to work my buns off I'd go home to the USA and do it." I will never understand why anyone willing to work hard would be doing it here in China. Even 10000 yuan a month is less than $2000 US. To me the beauty of being here is not having to exhaust myself to make a living. I have a roomy apartment, provided free by my school, 3 cats and a girl roughly half my age. (No, she's not a student nor even a former one.) My life is good. My 2 biggest fears are 1) A major health scare and 2) I'll never be able to adjust to life at home with a real job and real pressure. I'll undoubtedly never be able to formally "retire." But, seriously, retire from WHAT, exactly? I feel like I'm semi-retired now.

[fred13331]

[fred13331]

[lemak]

[Non Sequitur]