Expat Health Insurance Policies

Some UK medical insurers will offer expatriate policies where chronic (i.e., long-lasting) conditions are not covered because their UK policies do not cover such conditions - the state is expected to take over after a while - and that particular clause has been carried over into the expatriate side of the business.

The trend would seem to be towards buying the comprehensive-type policies - especially among seasoned expatriates who are aware of the problems which can befall those who don’t have the right type of cover.

Expat Health Insurance - Comprehensive Cover

Primary International Healthcare’s fully comprehensive Platinum Plan, for example, covers all the areas that could result in costs for the expatriate, including dental care, childbirth and pregnancy expenses, out-patient and in-patient care, prescribed medicines, physiotherapy, repatriation and evacuation and local road ambulance services.

Hospital bills are settled direct with the hospital or clinic and a no-claims bonus is available to customers who do not claim on their policy during the course of the year.

Expat Health Insurance - Spain

On this plan, cover for a 50-year-old living in Spain would cost £690 per year. The excess is £60 per medical claim and £75 per dental claim, and a range of voluntary excesses apply to allow the expat to reduce the cost of cover.
The more basic version offered by Primary is the Gold Plan, which excludes dental treatment and pregnancy and childbirth cover as well as personal accident benefits that apply with the Platinum Plan. Here the same 50-year-old would pay £515 per year for annual cover.

Primary suggests that for expatriates not to get seriously put out by foreign healthcare systems it pays to get good advice before they move abroad. The group’s Simon Redgrove says: “Expectations of what health service means differ. For someone from the UK who goes to Spain, for example, they may find it quite a different prospect. That’s why so many people there have private medical insurance.”

Expat Medical Insurance Policies

Redgrove says that with this uncertainty in mind, his group has seen a shift towards the comprehensive plans. “I think that’s true with regard to more seasoned expats. They can see the value of the fuller service,” he says.
Mark Dugdale at MediCare has also observed this trend. “Our Executive International plan is our biggest seller. People want the reassurance of complete care,” he says. “People who buy the big packages are concerned about big illnesses.

People with families tend to take these packages whereas a young, single man is more likely to take a basic package.”

Expat Travel Insurance Policies

Those buying a basic package might include people working in Europe who have filled in form E111 - which allows EU citizens to receive reciprocal healthcare within the Community - but who require a ‘top up’. The British expatriate community in Europe currently numbers around two million, so this is a huge market. However, as Primary note, expatriates need to be aware of their residency status if they are thinking of coming back to the UK for treatment.

Expat Emergency Health Insurance Cover

Cover for non emergencies would not be provided by the National Health Service if the patient had taken up residence in another country and is simply electing to return to the UK for healthcare needs.

To this end, Primary’s products include two plans aimed at expatriates residing in mainland Europe and two devised for expatriates living in France. The two plans for those in France are to accommodate the needs of expatriates who may be registered on the state healthcare system. These mirror the sort of top-up policy a French national would buy to supplement state healthcare cover, which is usually between 60 and 70 per cent of the costs.

Primary’s Redgrove says: “It’s certainly a growing market. A lot more people are working and moving abroad and a lot of UK companies are moving into Europe. But it’s not guaranteed that you will get health insurance as part of the package.”

And be aware of the rules in the country to which you are moving. Dugdale at MediCare notes that expatriates moving to Switzerland - not an EU member - must, by law, buy a local health insurance policy.