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Comment by vietnomnomnom | Hacker News Reader

My partner and I were recently discussing this very problem. She has extended family in rural Vietnam and she is remitting a substantial amount of money to pay for their healthcare: it would be more cost effective to use health insurance but arranging it from overseas is very difficult due to bureaucracy, literacy etc.

We discussed possible solutions -- hiring someone local who is literate, versed in health insurance etc. -- to manage the process for her, and so InstaKin is exactly what we need, but healthcare (for example) is an ongoing process and needs ad-hoc support when filing claims. Do you see InstaKin as capable of supporting this sort of need, or is it for more transactional and easy to validate needs? Do you have a long term vision that better supports this type of need?

Thanks,

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Thank you for highligting a key problem area. As a new entity, we believe that we first have to build trust with migrant communities by helping them with more standardised everyday tasks. As we build trust, we will onboard vendors for healthcare related services.

We have already helped customers who needed access to at-home care for their parents back home but that was more on an ad-hoc basis. In the long term, we plan to standardise access to such service as well.

> health insurance but arranging it from overseas is very difficult due to bureaucracy, literacy etc.

I’ve actually never heard of anyone I know in Vietnam having health insurance. Kind of a weird idea to me.

Why can't you just keep a doctor / clinic on retainer?

I know that will sound like a crazy idea to Americans, but doctor visits aren't expensive in Asia.

I do not have a lot of clarity on the situation so I can't provide much of an answer unfortunately. They're in a rural part of the country, and spending thousands of dollars per year on healthcare. My research showed that private health insurance is very easy to access (at ~$100/year/person) which would be an order of magnitude cheaper than their current healthcare expenditure. There's a strong possibility that I am missing material information, or that the expense has been overstated -- I only have first hand knowledge of the amounts of money sent.

As you're knowledgeable on the subject, could you give me an estimate for the costs you'd expect healthcare to cost for a family in rural Vietnam? I assumed based on the health insurance cost that the out of pocket cost for a heavy user would only be hundreds of dollars per year.

I have some experience in the region. A $100/year package will only cover very little but with high deductible and very low limits to any payout.

A "western" style comprehensive health insurance package will set you back much more, at least $150 per month I'd say. Also they will probably reject people who spend 1000s per year on healthcare currently.

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