|
|
 |
Local PMI versus International PMI
When moving overseas many expatriates do not fully appreciate how much a good quality international private medical insurance plan will cost them. When they see the premiums they can sometimes baulk at the cost, particularly if paying for medical insurance is not something they have previously done. They may think it is better to look for cheaper alternatives.
Invariably that will lead them to one of two places, they either go uninsured and take a gamble on future medical requirements or they look at a local domestic plan – depending on where you are and the plan you take, you may find that this option turns out to be a gamble too.
If you did take a local plan then what are the potential pitfalls? The first and most obvious will be language. Policy wordings are crucially important and being able to read and understand them is vital, after all if you have misread a policy wording then you will usually find out the hard way when your expensive medical treatment turns out not to be covered. Reading a policy wording in your own language can be hard enough, trying to do this in a foreign language could be extremely difficult.
You then need to look at the plan and the plan provider itself. It may be cheap for a reason! Whereas most international plans will be regulated in some way – most of the plans we deal with will be regulated by the UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) and this means you have a great deal of protection provided by them. However, what would happen if you local plan refused a claim, where could you go from there? What protection would you have? It could be that you have none and so this cheap local plan is now looking very expensive as you are saddled with expensive medical costs. |
Local PMI versus International PMI
Another consideration is where treatment is available. An International plan will usually let you use any medical facility within your chosen area of cover – typically this will be Europe, Worldwide excluding the USA and Canada or Worldwide. This means that you can have your medical treatment in the best facilities available giving you access to the best treatment available. A local plan will usually restrict you to the country you are in and to a restricted hospital list. This may not include the facility you want to use or the hospital that expatriates usually use.
How do the benefits look, providing you can read and understand them? You need to consider just how much the plan will pay out per year or per lifetime and in particular are there any sub limits on treatments. You local plan may look fine, it allows you to use the hospital that you would want to but does it provide sufficient benefit levels to cover the more serious and therefore more expensive conditions. What if the plan ran out halfway through treatment, what would you do then? An international plan will typically have an annual limit in the region of £1m, $1.6m or €1.1m – this of course varies from plan to plan. Again, your cheaper local plan could prove very expensive if you are saddled with the balance of the treatment bills.
Stating the obvious, you need a medical insurance plan when you are ill or injured and you need it to work for you and you need it to work fast and efficiently. International plans will have multilingual emergency contact numbers which are available all day, every day. No matter where you are or what treatment you need your international plan is only a phone call away and from the first call they will act to ensure that you and your requirements come first and that you get the best possible treatment as soon as possible. They will be able to talk to hospitals and doctors and understand what you need and make sure that you get it. With a local plan you will most likely only be able to speak to people in the local language and crucial may end up in a hospital where nobody understands you and you do not understand them – crucially this could delay treatment.
Even if you are not having any treatment, how will routine administration of the plan work? Even if you can understand your paperwork will you be able to deal with a company who may not speak your native language? Will you be able to accurately complete the application procedures? What if you missed something vital off the application form that came to light when you required treatment, this may invalidate your cover altogether!
Like any thing in life, cheapest is not always the best. Whilst local cover can seem like an ideal cheap option you may find out the hard way that a more expensive, better quality international medical insurance plan actually turns out to be the cheapest option by far.
Steve Nelson
Sales Manager
April Medibroker
21st May 2010
Click Here to return to Articles
Click Here to return to Home Page
For a Range of Premiums from Quality International Medical Insurance Providers