@Geezer:

Thanks for the info.

Did you have any kind of internatonal medical insurannce at the time?

I have cover, and am wondering how the payments and reimbursements would go in practise.

The insurance provider lists a few hospitals in Kunming as preferred places to go to, so I have been assuming that the hospital could settle the payments with the insurance company directly.

@Geezer: really useful account. Didn't understand who you said you were the grandfather of or whom you said it to, or quite how that worked.
One question: there are a few catering services in Kunming, do you know if they are allowed to deliver meals to hospital patients?

@alienew:

I can comment that when we were staying in maternity hospital waiting for delivery, we could order food to the room by the usual delivery services.

I don't know if this applies for other (especially public) hospitals.

do they deliver babies as well as food ;-)

@JanJan: I did not have any coverage and I was on a student visa. The school's owner also helped out. I think it cost me about 11000 yuan.

Over the years, 30, I have been an inpatient in five hospitals in Beijing, Shanghai and Kunming. Not once did any hospital take insurance. It was always pay the bill and then make a claim with the school or insurance company.

北京协和医学院, Běijīng xiéhé yīxué yuàn, which has an excellent cardio department the admissions rule, if you had a heart attack, was 20000 yuan when they brought you in the door. They took ATM cards and US credit cards.

@Alienew: Thought that with your time in China I thought you would have got it. In China, the family is responsible to pony up at the hospital. I was booked out in three days and needed to dispose of an apartment full of furniture.

When the doctor decided to ignore my two sons standing there, and my booked flight and that I could get free healthcare (VA), I played a culture card. There were 8 to ten doctors and nurses standing around when I said, 好吧，我是你的爷爷。 你得付钱！Got lots of smiles and a few giggles.

Several friends brought food the first few days. Food was being brought in by families for the other patients. I knew where to go, about 200m from the gate, so I had my body man take me.

One more thing.

I forgot to bring my mobile phone charger. Big fail. I suggest everyone should have at least a small "Go Bag" with some essentials, toilet articles, and your extra phone charger. Somebody can go and fetch it for you so you can call the catering people.

bodyman will also bring food in, if he knows what you want

If you know how, you can use any of several food delivery apps (chinese only, as far as I know). Best food for hospitals is islamic - aside from the msg. It's clean, soupy, and you can also get non-spicy dishes.

As for hospitals - we prefer the TCM hospitals, such as the one on Wuyi Lv.

As to your original question, my family have used Grace Medical Services under its previous name (www.gokunming.com/[...] We had a good experience, consulting with Western doctors to diagnose or prescribe medicine, or to refer to reliable hospitals for scans.