International Health Insurance

The problem is that, when it comes to PMI cover, you may have to pay for a parachute with lots of bells and whistles on it because that’s what other customers have demanded.

Debbie Purser at ExpaCare says: “Over the years we have changed our products. In July last year we added psychiatric treatment to our top level of cover. Maternity and routine dental is difficult to price in but we have done that too.

“People also ask for things such as preventative care but it’s trying to price the product at the right premium level in the marketplace. Putting prices up by £200-£300 a year is a lot.
“Rousseau at InterGlobal agrees: “If we build in maternity cover or routine dentistry as a standard benefit, people have to pay for it,” he says.

International Health Insurance & Rousseau

Purser at ExpaCare suggests this is partly a result of medical inflation. “There are always price rises in excess of inflation,” she says.
But still customers are demanding ever more comprehensive policies. Smith at Medibroker notes that a lot more providers are offering chronic illness cover in their comprehensive policies.

Much depends on particular circumstances of course. As Purser at ExpaCare says: “If it is a young IT consultant not worried about his health, he will take basic cover. If it’s someone taking their family abroad they will take out a higher level of cover.”

International Health Insurance - Rousseau's Parachute Analogy

“Even in some European countries a cancer check, diagnosis and treatment for one year could easily cost £25,000. With a basic policy most of that treatment wouldn’t be covered.”
How much does it cost?

Medibroker’s website shows that a single male, aged 30, working in Europe, can expect to pay around £777 in annual premiums. The cheapest option for Europe-wide cover is £522 with InterGlobal Insurance Services’ Comprehensive Plan and the most expensive option is the £2,212 charged by IHI danmark for its International Health and Hospital Plan. The same policyholder in the Middle East would pay on average £926 a year in premiums.

International Health Insurance And Goodhealth

In North America - where medical costs are prohibitive - our 30 year-old single male would pay on average £1,688 a year in premiums with MultiNational Underwriters offering the cheapest cover at £731 and BUPA International the most expensive at £2,775 for its Lifeline Gold product. A couple aged 40 and 35 with two children aged ten and seven would pay on average £2,252 a year in premiums in Europe, £2,603 in the Middle East and £5,260 in the US.

It should be noted, however, that this is only a snapshot to give you an idea of costs. The prices quoted above based on the most popular level of cover available as identified by the product provider. The products may differ in terms of inclusions and exclusions.

International Health Insurance & Havens Hideaways

Regular readers of this column will know what Havens & Hideaways thinks about bodies such as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Financial Action Task

Force, and the Financial Stability Forum.
Our views boil down to this: they are politically driven organisations whose objectives are to stamp out money laundering and recoup tax revenues for OECD member states.
Anyone in doubt only needs to look at the double standards of the OECD on so-called ‘harmful’ tax practices, the most evil of which are probably ‘tax ringfencing’ and lack
of transparency.

International Health Insurance - Ringfencing

Come June this year, OECD members will apparently be allowed to impose sanctions on uncooperative jurisdictions that allow harmful tax practices. So will they also impose sanctions on some of the aforementioned member states? The smart money says not.
With these thoughts in mind, we were both amused and alarmed to receive emails that offer investors their own private banks that are allegedly based in Montenegro.

International Health Insurance - Emails

According to the emails, the set-up cost of these personal banks is $140,000 (up from $125,000 because of surging demand).
So what is the OECD doing about all this? Peering down my little list of jurisdictions that could be blacklisted next month, I am, as I write, looking for Montenegro’s name.

Maldives, yes. Marshall Islands, yes. Monaco, yes. Montserrat, yes. Montenegro umm, no. Thought not. No sign of Montenegro at all. But surely, if these emails are genuine, the country is contravening the OECD’s rules on harmful tax practice somewhere.

Don’t worry though, the OECD may have a plan. Its first aim could be to squeeze the biggest offshore centres, then start clamping down on smaller, more illicit centres, where no sane investor would go in the first place.