Find out more about William Russell
Picking the right insurance products for your circumstances can be tricky. That’s why we’ve created a full guide on what you should look out for when choosing your expat health insurance plan.
Table of contents
If you want access to private healthcare as an expat, there are typically three types of insurance policy you can consider:
An international policy seems like the obvious choice. The downside? International health insurance is more expensive than both travel insurance and local health insurance.
However, many expats find access to high-quality hospitals and English-speaking doctors priceless. Especially in places like Southeast Asia and Africa which have very different public healthcare systems as many expats from European countries enjoy at home.
Once you know you want or need an international policy the first thing you need to do (if you haven’t already) is to work out where you’ll need cover. Finding a provider that covers your destination(s) is essential to avoid wasting time.
Many expat health insurance plans come with international cover as standard. But what does ‘international’ mean exactly? Does it mean cover in all countries, or just certain countries? Find a provider that is transparent about any excluded locations.
We offer a choice of coverage zones, so you can choose which territorial cover best suits your needs:
Zone 1 means full cover for private healthcare in all countries in the world, except the USA.
In the USA, you only have cover for essential emergency treatment covered by your plan that you receive while on a temporary trip of up to 90 days, with a maximum benefit of US$50,000 per policy year.
The regional coverage zone gives you full cover in the United Arab Emirates, all countries in the Middle East (except Iran, Syria, and Yemen), Africa, Indian Subcontinent, South East Asia (except Singapore), and Latin America.
While on a temporary trip of up to 90 days’ duration in any of the countries or regions below, you have cover for emergency treatment only, up to US$50,000 per policy year:
Countries of the European Union, the United Kingdom, Andorra, the Channel Islands, Gibraltar, Greenland, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway, San Marino, Switzerland, Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, New Zealand, Singapore, and Taiwan.
You have no cover at all in the USA, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Canada, any Caribbean country or island, or the London area.
Local cover gives you full cover in the United Arab Emirates, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and the Philippines.
You have no cover outside these countries.
Our research shows that when would-be expats start thinking about their health and well-being abroad, it’s usually considered in very general terms. Most people simply want to ensure they have access to private care. But while most health insurance gives you access to private healthcare, the health plan you choose defines the rules and limitations of that access. That’s why it’s so important to pick the right plan.
Many providers have will provide standard and optional benefits.
As standard, all our health plans include cover for:
Find out more about our different health plans and what they cover.
We live in an age of consumer choice and personalisation. While most people usually think of consumer choice with respect to lifestyle matters, personalisation is extremely topical in healthcare. For example, our health plans cover tests to sequence the genes of cancer cells, which can help oncologists give you a treatment plan personalised to your condition.
We think it’s only right that you can personalise your health insurance plan to suit your circumstances too. So, once you’ve picked your health plan, you can tailor it to suit you.
When you first started thinking about health insurance, you were probably just looking for a policy to pay for your private healthcare. So, why bother with an co-insurance? After all, an co-insurance means you pay towards your medical bills.
Counter-intuitively, not having a co-insurance (known as ‘nil co-insurance’) is unpopular with our members. Why? Having a nil co-insurance means more expensive premiums.
Here are some common questions we get asked about international health insurance. To see more FAQs on global health insurance click here.
When you apply for your health plan, you can include your spouse/partner and any number of children/step-children for an additional cost.
You can include your unmarried children up to the age of 18 (or 25, if they’re in full-time education such as university studies).
Yes, in fact, half of our customers are companies who want health insurance for their employees and the families of their employees.
Whether you’re a start-up with only one or two employees, or you’re an SME setting up an overseas office we can help you include international medical insurance as part of your employee benefits programme.
Employee eligibility is entirely flexible. You can cover only a certain tier of employee (e.g., directors, senior managers), or you can set different levels of cover for different tiers of employee (e.g., senior managers on the Gold plan, junior staff on the Silver plan).
You can see accurate prices on our online quote tool. It only takes a few seconds to see prices for all our plans for you and your family. It doesn’t cost you or commit you to anything. We’ll only call you to follow up on your quote and won’t spam you with calls and emails. If you tell us you’re not interested—we always respect your decision.
Our website is the best place to see prices for our plans. We don’t feature on price comparison websites and we don’t share our premiums with third parties.
