Changes We’re Making To Health Insurance Policies Starting Or Renewing In 2023

Introduction

We’re pleased to share with you our new range of international health insurance products for 2023.

Headline changes include:

• Improvements to mental health benefits and rehabilitation treatment
• New ‘Zone 7’ added which gives cover in Southeast Asia only
• We now cover members for second opinions on diagnoses and treatment plans for medical conditions

These changes take effect for all existing members with a renewal date of 01 January 2023 or later, and all new members purchasing a health plan with a start date of 01 January 2023 or later.

Benefit changes

Rehabilitation treatment (all plans)

On all health plans, we’re changing the benefit for rehabilitation treatment. Previously, we capped the number of days you spent in a rehabilitation unit of a hospital.

This can be unfair because it often takes a few days for a patient simply to settle in to such a unit. Instead, the new plans have a monetary cap on treatment costs while the member is in a rehabilitation unit of a hospital.

Mental health treatment (Silver & Gold plan)

We’re improving the benefit for in-patient mental health treatment on the Silver and Gold plans:

Cancer genome testing (all plans)

Sequencing the genes of cancerous cells has become a standard means of diagnosis and treatment in cancer care. On all health plans, we’re removing the benefit limit on cancer genome testing.

Accessing primary medical care (all plans)

We’ve made it explicit that members have cover for remote/virtual consultations with a doctor or specialist.

Routine maternity care (Gold plan)

On the Gold plan, we’re increasing the benefit for routine maternity care and routine care of newborns:

Emergency caesarean sections (plan for businesses)

On the Gold plan, we’ve moved the benefit for childbirth necessitating an emergency surgical procedure to the benefit for routine childbirth and routine care of newborns.

Important changes to plan options in 2023

Zone 7

We’ve added a Zone 7, which gives cover in Southeast Asia only.

Cover in Brunei, Cambodia, Timor Leste, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, and Vietnam, with no cover anywhere else.

Zone 7 is not available where country of residence is Indonesia.

(NB There is a technical reason why we’re not giving Zone 7 the name Zone 6!)

Optional maternity care on Silver (plans for businesses only)

We’ve added a new option (Option D) for routine maternity care, which gives cover up to US$15,000 per pregnancy.

Changes to terms & conditions of the plan agreements

We’ve changed the definition of a temporary trip

A temporary trip now means a trip of no more than 90 days. Previously, we defined a temporary trip as a trip of no more than 45 days.

We’ve removed the exclusion for second opinions

We now cover members for second opinions on diagnoses and treatment plans for medical conditions.

We’ve changed the way we refer to advanced diagnostic tests

Previously, we referred to advanced tests (e.g., CT scans, MRIs) as ‘advanced diagnostic tests.’ In your new plan, we refer to these tests as ‘advanced imaging.’

We’ve clarified our position on adding surrogate and adopted children to your plan

We’ve clarified the terms and conditions about adding surrogate or adopted children to your plan. In your new plan, we can only consider applications for such children once you have completed all legalities.

How we’ve developed our pricing model for health plans starting in 2023

Pricing changes

Base rates—We’ve applied the majority of the increase to the age base rates and the base rates for optional benefits.

Excesses—As we’ve projected in previous years, from 2023 onwards we’re applying only nominal adjustments to excesses (subject to performance and claims behaviours). We’ve completed our work on the US$250 per annum excess (the original goal was aligning the discounts for new business and renewal business). We did some minor work on pretty much every excess from nil to US$1,600 per claim.

USA-90—We’re closing USA-90 for new business. USA-90 remains open for renewal business.

Zone 7—We’ve created a new coverage zone.

Medevac Plus—We’re switching Medevac Plus from percentage pricing to fixed-premium values. We’re also delinking Medevac Plus from the USA-45 and USA-90 (renewal only) options.

Dental Basic/Plus for members aged 0-17—Since we switched this optional benefit to a fixed-premium value, we’ve conducted a 3-year remedial plan. With 2023, that plan is now complete.

15%/7.5% new member discount- We’ve extended this discount for another year.

Insurance premium tax – IPT has changed in several countries.

Compliance – For all products, new business is closed to members in Russia, Ukraine, and Ireland. In Ireland, we cannot issue renewal business.

Ex-Essential Thailand discounts – When we switched Essential members in Thailand to an Elite plan, we introduced discounts to ease the premium increase. This programme is unchanged.