Insurance for retirement
Medical insurance saves your retirement fund for medical expenses!
After retirement, not only will your income decrease, but you will also lose the coverage of group medical insurance. If you are ill, the burden of medical expenses will undoubtedly become great.
If you don’t have individual medical insurance, you’ll need to use your “retirement fund,” which can disrupt your original plans and affect the quality of life.
It is well known that the waiting time in public hospitals in Hong Kong is always long. For example, the waiting time for joint replacement surgery is usually counted in years, ranging from 7 months to over 6 years, depending on the hospital network. This may cause patients to miss the golden time for treatment.
- *Data is taken from the waiting time of patients who have undergone surgery between October 2024 and September 2025.
Private hospitals are indeed a better choice than public hospitals, but treatment costs are generally more expensive. For example, the cost of a total knee replacement surgery (S&N implant) for one knee at Gleneagles Hospital Hong Kong ranges from HK$171,900 to HK$365,560, which can easily become a significant portion of your retirement fund.
If you don’t want to disrupt your retirement plan or even go bankrupt due to medical expenses, you may want to consider purchasing suitable medical insurance (like VHIS) to ensure comprehensive medical coverage.
Are premiums always expensive for seniors?
If you know how to buy, you can get full-covered medical insurance for less than HK$1,200 per month!
Considering the two major issues for the retired people:
- They do not have “group medical insurance”; and
- They may not have many budgets for “premiums”
So We recommend that retirees purchase the Bowtie VHIS Flexi Regular with Bowtie & GHK Wellness Package or Bowtie & CUHKMC Wellness Package
Why? Here are the reasons:
- Affordable Premiums
After retirement, there is no fixed income from work and the retirement fund will gradually decrease over time. Therefore, before purchasing insurance, you should budget and calculate the premium amount you can afford for the next 10 to 20 years to ensure that it will not affect your quality of life after retirement.
For example, take a 60-year-old non-smoking man insuring the Bowtie VHIS Flexi Plan (Basic) and adding the GHK Wellness Package or CUHKMC Wellness Package—the total monthly premium is just $1,128, which is quite manageable.
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- Full Reimbursement for Designated Medical Packages*
Beyond the Bowtie VHIS Flexi Plan (Basic) itself, which offers up to $600,000 annually for eligible medical expenses, adding the GHK Wellness Package or CUHKMC Wellness Package means you get full reimbursement* for specific medical packages:
| Bowtie VHIS Flexi Plan Additional Coverage | Full Reimbursement Scope |
| GHK Wellness Package |
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| CUHKMC Wellness Package |
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- *Full compensation for specified medical packages is subject to the annual policy limit of the Bowtie VHIS Flexi Regular plan.
- HK$ Deductible, No Need to Pay Out-of-Pocket Expenses Upfront
As mentioned earlier, retirees no longer have the protection of company insurance to offset deductible costs. If they need to undergo related examinations or treatment when they get sick, the Bowtie Flexi + GHK Wellness Package /Bowtie Flexi + CUHKMC Wellness Package can ensure that policyholders do not have to pay out of pocket and can receive “genuine full coverage.”
Bowtie Flexi+Gleneagles plan/Bowtie Flexi + CUHKMC plan can fully cover over 240/220 surgeries respectively and examinations but the annual benefit limit is just HK$600k, is that enough?
High-end medical insurance plans on the market generally provide coverage of over HK$10 million. In comparison, a benefit limit of HK$600k may seem low. However, according to the internal data of the Bowtie actuarial team, more than 95% of claims related to accidents or illnesses that require half-private ward hospitalization do not exceed HK$400,000.
Therefore, in most cases (while considering the balance of premium affordability), an annual benefit limit of HK$600k is already sufficient. Moreover, the VHIS Flexi does not have a lifetime benefit limit, meaning that the annual benefit limit of HK$600k will be recalculated every policy year.
If you have already developed certain medical conditions, it may be difficult to pass the underwriting or you may need to pay a loading to get insured.
Therefore, Bowtie suggests that individuals purchase suitable medical insurance while they are still healthy and without any suspicious symptoms. This ensures that they can obtain comprehensive medical coverage at the most affordable premium.
Even if you become ill, you don’t have to worry since you can receive appropriate treatment as soon as possible!
Free Annual Health Check and Additional Health Services (Total Value up to HK$4,220)
Whether you add the GHK Wellness Package or the CUHKMC Wellness Package, you’ll get an annual free health check and they include:
| Bowtie VHIS Flexi Plan Additional Coverage | Annual Basic Health Check | Optional Check Items |
| GHK Wellness Package |
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| CUHKMC Wellness Package |
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- #Applicable only to persons aged 18 or above.
- ^Applicable to Bowtie GHK Wellness Package.
