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All our plans provide comprehensive benefits for when you’re admitted to hospital for an illness or injury as an inpatient or daypatient.
Joe Holden
Senior Business Development Manager (Direct)
International hospital insurance covers you for a range of services received from a hospital, anywhere in the world. It insures you for the duration of your stay in the hospital, plus ambulance transfers, and any essential treatments or drugs.
It’s well-known that healthcare in many countries – including the USA, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Thailand – can be staggeringly expensive. As an expatriate, you could be in line for huge hospital bills, particularly if you need to stay overnight, if you don’t have the right level of health insurance cover.
The types of treatment you should expect to find covered by your hospital insurance plan include:
Covers the duration of your stay in hospital, whether you are a daypatient or inpatient.
If you are a parent of a child under 18 years old who is admitted to hospital, you will also receive accommodation in the hospital.
When your journey to the hospital requires a local ambulance.
Covers services not specifically intended to improve your condition, such as X-rays, diagnostic tests, nursing care, drugs and so on.
We want your stay in hospital to be as comfortable as possible. That’s why, with William Russell’s international health insurance policy, you are covered for:
You don’t need to worry about when, where, or how you ended up in hospital.
Our international health insurance policy covers you anywhere in the world and will provide the most comprehensive cover possible to ensure your treatment is the best it can be.
Here is a breakdown of what your William Russell international health insurance covers by way of hospital costs:
While receiving treatment for certain conditions, you may have to stay in a hospital for several days or weeks. In these situations, we will endeavour to make your stay as comfortable as possible by ensuring you have a private or semi-private hospital room for the duration of your stay. Every private hospital room will include a personal en-suite bath or shower room, while semi-private hospital rooms will include semi-private en-suite bath and shower rooms.
If the person staying in a hospital is under 18 years of age, one parent will be permitted to stay with them for the duration of their treatment. Parent accommodation is provided with full cover as standard in all of our plans.
If your journey to your nearest available hospital requires a transfer by ambulance, all necessary journeys, including treatment received inside that ambulance, will be covered. In situations where a journey to hospital cannot be made by road, this policy will cover the cost of an air ambulance transfer.
While staying in hospital, you’re likely to have routine medical procedures rather than treatments designed to specifically treat a disease or infirmity. These treatments will be covered by your hospital treatment plan. The range of treatments you could expect to receive includes:
This cover also extends to surgical removal, either as an inpatient or daypatient, of impacted, buried or unerupted wisdom teeth, where the procedure is carried out by a doctor (not a dentist) in a hospital under general anaesthetic. All of our plans provide full cover for hospital treatment costs.
The hospital cash benefit is a benefit that can be claimed if you choose to use a facility that is free such as state care. For example, if you were in the UK and needed an operation but instead of going private you used the NHS, you could then claim for hospital cash for each night as we wouldn’t be paying for the claim itself.
It is payable for each night spent in a hospital when you receive treatment eligible for cover by your plan for which no charge is made by the hospital. Benefit is paid for up to a maximum of 60 nights per policy year. If selected, your excess will not be applied to this benefit.
These will be covered by other parts of your health insurance policy, according to the level of cover you have taken out.
For instance, if you receive cancer treatment while at a hospital, this will be covered by your cancer care policy rather than your expat hospital stay policy.
You will therefore need to make sure your policy extends to any areas you may require, such as maternity care and mental health.
Here’s a breakdown of what is and what isn’t covered for hospital care in each of our plans:
Bronze
SilverLite
Silver
Gold
Please note that accommodation in a private hospital room is only available under the Bronze and SilverLite plans if you have selected this option.
We’ve made it as easy as possible for you to claim for your hospital treatment, and you can call one of our policy advisors at any time for help. To claim, simply tell us by following these steps:
Step 1
Download our claims form by clicking on the link below.
Step 2
Complete the form and send it back to us at claims@william-russell.com.
Step 3
Once we have assessed your claim, we’ll be in touch to confirm the next steps.
We understand that if the time comes when you need to go to the hospital, the last thing on your mind will be figuring out which hospital your international health insurance will cover or how you will settle the bill.
With our health plans, you’ll have access to top-rated hospitals and doctors within the coverage zone you’ve selected. We also have over 40,000 hospitals in our worldwide medical network. If you’re admitted to a hospital in our network, we’ll settle your bills with the hospital directly, so you won’t be left out-of-pocket. We’ll work closely with your hospital or clinic to make sure you’re home and healthy as soon as possible.
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Here are some of the most commonly asked questions about the international hospital cover on our health plans. If you can’t find what you’re looking for here, or would like to speak to our award winning customer service team, please call us on +44 1276 486 477.
Choosing international health insurance gives you total peace of mind – knowing that your hospital stay will be covered. That way, you can relax and focus on your treatment, rather than worrying about the cost.
With ambulance transfers, medical procedures, drugs, and nursing included in your policy, plus a hospital cash benefit to cover your expenses, you’ll be able to call on the level of support you need, when you need it.
Our hospital care insurance promises you a stay in either a semi-private (Bronze and SilverLite) or private (Silver and Gold) hospital room with en-suite facilities, so you can experience the benefit of added peace and dignity during your stay.
While we can’t promise you “better” care, we can promise the highest possible standard in any given situation.
Because of the extremely high cost of healthcare, we have included the United States as an optional country with our global health insurance policies.
There are certain unique restrictions that apply to these policies which you will need to be aware of before travelling to the United States.
The simple answer is that you will be entitled to receive treatment, but you will be liable for the full cost of that treatment.
This includes situations where you are taken to hospital without your consent, for instance, if you are unconscious at the time of arrival.
If you don’t have insurance, you will be liable to pay the full cost for all medical services upon completion of your treatment, including doctors’ bills, nursing, drugs, procedures and treatments, accommodation, and any other expenses.
This could potentially be a huge sum of money – one you never even agreed to pay. This is why it’s essential to have insurance, so that you’re covered for any eventuality while living abroad.
In 2021, William Russell revealed the eye-watering costs of healthcare bills around the world. Among the highest claims we paid out in 2019–2020 included:
This will always depend on the specific laws governing a country, however in the United States – as one example of a country where all healthcare is self-funded – all people, regardless of their insurance status, are entitled to receive emergency medical care as and when they need it.
In other words, it would be deemed potentially illegal for a medical professional to deny treatment to someone in need because they were uninsured.
However, as you might have guessed, the problem comes much later. If you are uninsured, and have to receive emergency medical treatment, you are likely to leave hospital with a substantial bill, which you may end up paying off over several years.
Some people have been thrust into financial hardship by the astronomical costs of healthcare in some countries, so it’s always highly recommended that you take out insurance.
Once again, the laws will be different depending on which country. But in the USA, once you are receiving treatment in a hospital, and if you are deemed to be in need of that treatment, the hospital is obligated to treat you.
If the hospital is aware that you are uninsured, they may consult with you about a reduced service, or recommend you to a different hospital, but they cannot refuse to serve you once you have started treatment.
Yes. You must seek our pre-authorisation before you receive treatment. There’s a simple online form that you need to fill out.
All the benefits on this webpage are per member per policy year, unless we state otherwise. We show the benefit limits in US dollars, but we can also denominate your policy in pounds sterling or Euros. You won’t find complete information for our plans on this webpage, nor the full T&Cs, limitations, and exclusions that would apply if you purchase a health insurance policy. You can find complete information in the plan agreement, which we suggest you read together with this webpage. We work hard to ensure the information we provide on this webpage is accurate and up-to-date, but inaccuracies are possible. We rectify errors as soon as we become aware of them. The T&Cs that apply to your policy are those found in your plan agreement.
At William Russell, we have over 30 years’ experience of helping expatriates move abroad and settle into their new lives overseas by providing world-class international health insurance.
Joe Holden Global Relationship Manager
If you’re ready to see prices for health insurance, click on ‘Get a Quote’ below to head on over to our online quote tool.
We’ll ask you a few details (your age, your location), and then we’ll show you prices—it only takes a few minutes!
A couple of days after you’ve received you quote, Joe will email or call you to find out how we can help you further. Joe won’t bug you, and you can opt out at any time.
It’s filled with handy information and tips for expats.
We were one of the first insurance providers to cover people living abroad, and we’ve earned a reputation for our wonderful customer service.
The insurer behind our policies is part of the Allianz group
We’re proud of our award-winning service and our members rate it highly
You will get your own dedicated adviser when you join
If you’re not happy with your health insurance policy or the service we provide, and you haven’t yet made a claim, then we’ll refund the premium you’ve paid—no questions asked.
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