In Cambodia today we can still see the ongoing effect of the war that embroiled the country until the 1990’s. Despite efforts to improve the public healthcare system, and efforts to introduce a universal social security system, the healthcare system in Cambodia still retains many structural problems which affect its quality of service.
The National Social Security Fund (NSSF), was introduced in 2008, its aim was to provide basic social security to workers in the private sector and their dependants, however the cover is limited to work related accidents. The pension system is only available to civil servants. The introduction of a public healthcare system was planned for 2012, however it has still not been applied. To this day, the NSSF covers only 10% of the working population.
In the absence of an efficient and reliable healthcare system, it is a private health insurance policy is indispensable in Cambodia.
In regards to the quality of care, the public hospitals are generally underequipped and greatly below the standards of Western hospitals.
The private hospitals offer a better quality of care but do not necessarily have the specialists or the equipment on-site to treat certain medical conditions. In the event of a complicated medical condition, it is recommended to seek treatment outside of Cambodia (e.g. Bangkok in Thailand, Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam or in China or in Singapore), or even request repatriation to your country of origin. Even though healthcare costs are very low in Cambodia, the services offered can be very limited depending on where you are. This increases the possibility of needing a medical evacuation which could lead to an extremely high medical bill.
For these different reasons it is indispensable to have private health insurance in Cambodia including evacuation and/or repatriation, so that costs related to an evacuation as well as medical costs from outside of Cambodia are covered by your policy. Please be aware that your health insurance policy will only cover an evacuation/repatriation in the case of emergencies. If you wanted your day-to-day healthcare costs to be covered outside of Cambodia, you would need to have an international health insurance.
