Korean Job Discussion Forums

[naturegirl321]

I've heard that Koreans get pregnancy insurance to help cover costs. I've tried asking around, but no one seems to know. Anyone know if it exists and what I could do to get it? I' already have the GoEun card.

[travelnguy]

Not sure about pregnancy insurance per se, but you can get additional health insurance that will cover expenses that your government insurance doesn't.

However, the fees for pregnancy related hospital visits and the acutal delivery are not that bad.

My wife went to a private women's hospital and had a suite all to herself. After the 300.000 KRW card that was given to us ran out of money, we only paid about 400,000 - 600,000 in total. That was for all hospital visits, her labor, and the room for 3 or 4 nights. We were shocked. We expected to pay a few million won.

Find a hospital you like. They will give you a break down of costs associated with the visits and what the delivery will cost. I've seen lots of different numbers on here.

Good luck.

[jrwhite82]

My wife and I are going to our hospital tonight. I will ask and try to remember to report back here later.

[naturegirl321]

Thanks, but we're goign to a birthing centre, which will run about 800,000 and we have to leave within 8 hours.
plus the doula is 750,000
plus the monthly visits at the St. Vincents hospital. I spent 125,000 just for blood work, which I have to get done again in 2 weeks. Ultrasounds are 55,000, plus the doctor's fees are about 20,000, but have been more. I visited Ajou and spent 123,000 just on an ultrasound. So at ONE hospital check up I could easily spend close to 200,000.

Starting to add up. I'm only 3.5 months and have probably already spent at least 500,000. So how do I get extra insurance?

The Go Eun card is now 400,000 though

[jrwhite82]

Congrats NG! My wife is about 6 weeks ahead of you and we are doing the women's hospital thing too like the above poster. We discussed getting supplemental baby insurance earlier because a lot of things through the pregnancy and afterwards are not covered by the NHI plan. So this was good reminder to bring it up again and decide what we want to do about it. I'll let you know what we find out.

[nobbyken]

My wife got a check-card from her bank(KB) the last time.
She paid hospital expenses with that card and the gov. picked up the first 40k on any given day. e.g. On a 65k visit, we would only pay 25k, once or twice a month fairly adds up.

After she was past the first trimester, we got a standard insurance package for the baby. It cost about 30k a month and would help pay for any emergency operations needed until the baby was 3 months old. I think this is fairly common in Korea and getting it can be a good idea if you don't have lot's of savings.

My wife had a section and spent about 4 nights in hospital, cost between 600k-900k for surgical and room costs.
Most mothers here have in-laws help after birth or go to a postpartum hospital for recuperation for 3-5 weeks, where the temp is kept high and they are constantly fed miyok gug (seaweed soup) and rice to help breastfeeding. These can be 500-900k a week, depending on level of room and area.

Congratulations^^

[taobenli]

Naturegirl- are you going with Rosa? I was quoted 1.2 million won...

nobbyken- I'd really appreciate information about the supplementary insurance you mentioned, as I'm almost in my third trimester now. Is this insurance available if both parents are not Korean?

Thank you,

Bonnie

[Swampfox10mm]

We got pregnancy insurance, which was able to be adjusted to infant insurance (all the way up to maybe age 9 or 12 years old, if memory serves) through Hyundai. We considered it a must-have, and it covered pretty much everything when my daughter stayed in the hospital for 3 days when she had some pretty serious fever and illness at about 4 months of age.

Here was our agent, but she was Korean and my wife did all of the arrangements. This lady is based out of Dongdaemun, Seoul:

Name: 노귀례
Office: 02-2243-9838
Handphone: 011-9059-9247
Website: www.hi.co.kr
Hyundai Hi-Life

[RMNC]

My sincerest condolences to all the soon-to-be parents here

[naturegirl321]

Yeah, I'm going with Rosa. I was TOLD it was 800,000 on the expatparent forum, but when I asked her, she said she wouldn't tell me until 35 weeks. Which is kind of annoying, but at least the environment is good, so that's one advantage. And no chances of a C section unless it's an emergency.

Yes, please let me know about the supplemental insurance. I'v e asked on the expatforum and no one knows. Asked my boss and he doesn't know either.

temperatures aren't supposed to be high honestly, only about 70 degres Fahrenheit. Which is odd that they raise the temps here.

[naturegirl321]

[jrwhite82]

[Hyeon Een]

[Swampfox10mm]

[naturegirl321]