I am lucky. Yes, I am! When I moved to the Philippines for good in 1999, i was still able to get some very good health insurance plans: critical illness, accident, death because of accident etcetera etcetera....
And, I also joined PHILHEALTH.
I informed several other expats and (Filipino) friends of mine about it. One of them became very lucky. He has been hospitalized and needed a blood transfusion several months ago. I informed him about the latest statement of Dr. Rey B. Aquino, President and CEO of PhilHealth: "In keeping with its trust objective of providing its members with responsive benefits, blood transfusions done even as an outpatient is now being paid for by the state run Philippine Health Insurance cooperation (PhilHealth). This took effect already on al claims for outpatient blood transfusions starting one year ago.
Of course, it should be clarified that while purchase of blood is not included in the benefits , all medically-necessary drugs and medicines used during the transfusion shall be compensated in addition to the usual blood donor screening test.
What ever, however, being a PhilHealth member is a must - also and/or especially for expatriates living here in the Philippines.