Job Changes and Health Insurance in Hong Kong: A Guide for French Expats

In Hong Kong, employers are not required to provide health insurance for their employees. Companies are therefore free to offer it or not and, if they do, to set its level and budget. When employees feel that the insurance they get through work is not enough, it is also common for them to add an individual plan (known as a top-up).

What happens to your health insurance when your job changes? Leaving, changing or losing a job is common, and it is important to know what it means for your cover. We have listed the different scenarios for you, with professional tips to handle each one as well as possible.

1. You leave your job or are dismissed

When employees resign or are dismissed, they usually lose their health cover automatically. This is why an individual plan can be very useful.

However, some insurers offer a system called "portability" of your group health insurance (also called a "conversion option"). This means you can stay with the same insurer if you change employer, or if you are temporarily out of work and want to pay for your own health insurance.

Portability is fairly rare in Hong Kong but extremely attractive for employees, especially if you have pre-existing conditions, which insurers usually exclude. With portability, you avoid new underwriting with a new insurer, and the risk of having your pre-existing conditions excluded from a new plan.

Most of the time, portability of a health insurance plan comes with an extra premium and different conditions, such as:

• a minimum length of service (1 or 2 years)

• a deadline to use this right (usually 1 month)

If portability is not possible, you will need to take out an individual plan to cover your medical costs.

One way to avoid depending on cover tied to your job is to take out an individual top-up plan. It stays in force and keeps you covered during a transition period.

2. You leave Hong Kong to live in another country (not France)

If you move to another country but stay with the same company, make sure the health insurance you get through work covers medical costs well enough in the new country. Costs can vary a great deal from one country to another.

If you have individual cover, you can keep it. If your new country is in a lower-cost coverage zone than Hong Kong, your premium will be adjusted and you will pay less. You will also have to fill in a new health questionnaire.

You can take out travel insurance for the transition between your two countries of residence, but these policies usually have low limits and do not cover as much as health insurance.

3. You leave Hong Kong to live in France

There are several possible situations:

• You are covered by your company's insurance and are a member of the CFE: you go straight back into French national health insurance (Assurance Maladie), with no waiting period or exclusions. You can take out a complementary health plan through your company or on your own.

• You are covered by your company but are not a member of the CFE:

  1. you return to France with a job: you are covered again by French national health insurance. Mandatory membership based on work starts from your very first hour worked.

  2. you return to France without a job: if you are registered with Pôle Emploi (now France Travail) and receive unemployment benefits (from earlier periods of work in France or from membership of the Pôle emploi services expat insurance), these benefits give you the right to health insurance cover.

If you have no social security cover at all, you will need to apply to your local French health insurance office (CPAM) for universal health protection (PUMA). It covers medical costs for anyone who has lived in France on a stable and regular basis for at least 3 months. When you return, there is therefore a 3-month waiting period during which you cannot get your medical costs reimbursed.

4. You become self-employed or start your own business

If you start your own business, your only option is an individual health insurance plan. In that case, you will have to fill in a new health questionnaire.

Group health insurance plans are often only open above a minimum number of employees. However, a few insurers in Hong Kong offer group insurance from just one or two employees. You could then benefit from it even if you are the only employee of your company.

In Hong Kong, health insurance cover is not very standardised and the range of plans is very wide, in both terms and price. It is best to get advice from a specialist broker to find the health insurance that best fits your situation and needs.