I think it's called yibao, so can non Chinese citizens get that or some other local health insurance?
From the past threads on this issue, it seems like expats buy health insurance from sites like brokerfish or pacificprime or covered via work.
It is a hit and miss issue, I buy my son;s insurance from a Chinese company (not online) and I have bought life insurance from local company.
My niece works for PICC. You can get emergency accident insurance, but not health insurance as a foreigner.
bucko, what is PICC?
OK, thanks for the responses. Guessing it's unlikely at best.
Note that health care in China is much cheaper than in many western countries. It also seems that teachers working on contract for universities have either free, or extremely cheap, access to health care through the university, but I don't know details.
It's not cheaper if you have to pay all inpatient fees yourself in China but only pay a deductible since in your home country since you have access to health insurance or national care like UK or France. Of course inpatient is usually more serious stuff. Outpatient is cheaper in China depending how much the Chinese hospital bills you for Western drugs vs what amount of coverage your home country provides for prescription drugs.
PICC is the very big insurance company in China.
I have had inpatient here, and it was not that very high, compared with the USA.
The real cost of these things is if you want/need medivac to your home country. Medical insurance bought overseas will provide this, hence its much higher price. Chinese cover won't.
I have had medical insurance in China, from Chinese providers, but only as a dependant on my wife's employee cover.
