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Individual Cover or a Company Scheme?
When you are overseas and away from the comfort and familiarity of your home healthcare system it is essential that you ensure that you have access to good quality medical treatment.
In some cases you may be covered by the healthcare system in the country you are working in but you do need to consider the implications if you require treatment for a serious condition – will the standard of local care be high enough, will you be able to communicate with medical staff in a foreign language or would you even want to have this treatment back home with family and friends around you for support?
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The best care and best options for you will be offered by a good quality international private medical insurance plan. This can be taken individually or may be offered by your employer so then you are left with the question of which is best, your own plan or joining your employers plan.
There are certainly benefits to both options. A company scheme tends to be cheaper than individual cover as discounts are offered to groups with the discounts increasing with the size of the group. The very large groups can sometimes negotiate changes to a plan to enhance the cover.
However, you might also want to consider the down side of taking your companies plan. First of all, there are a good number of quality international plans to choose from but if you take your companies plan this choice is taken away. Your companies plan may not actually provide the cover you want, i.e. maternity cover.
Perhaps the most important consideration is that the company plan will stay with the company, i.e. when you leave that employer then you plan will usually end. You will then have to find your own plan or remain uncovered until you next employee plan. This could lead to problems finding cover for conditions that have been treated or worse still having to pay for your own treatment when you are in between contracts.
A professional expat may want to consider having their own plan that can follow them from one contract to the next so providing you with predictable and consistent cover. It may cost a little more in premiums doing it this way but then you could always negotiate reimbursement when talking to your next employer.
If you change your plan when you change employers you could find that you need new underwriting each time and this is when pre-existing conditions can be a problem and lead to gaps in your cover. Keeping your plan long-term could avoid expensive treatment having to be paid for by you which of course is what medical insurance is all about.
Moving to live in a new country is about enriching your life and fulfilling your potential.
April Medibroker is here to help you - from the initial advice on what expatriate health insurance policy meets your needs, through to any assistance that you may need in the future. Our staff are only a phone call or email away. Whether you need changes to cover or payment, need help with a claim or have questions about your international medical insurance policy we will gladly help.
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