Buying expatriate health insurance may, on the surface, appear to be much like buying any ordinary form of holiday insurance. They are both obligatory and many policies will offer very similar things, so in the majority of instances people see very little reason to pay over the odds or spend a great deal of time searching, so will instead simply opt for one of the cheapest options.
However, living or working abroad for long periods of time will be vastly different to simply heading away for a week or a few short days, and there are likely to be many very important things to take into account when you are choosing expat health insurance.
When living abroad, the healthcare you are likely to receive will be vastly different to that which you would receive on home shores. As such, unless you have the right expat insurance, there is a very good chance that you could find yourself waiting far longer than you should for treatment, see yourself having to pay out a huge amount of money to receive the treatment you need, or potentially even find you simply have to go without treatment simply because such medical aid happens to be out of your price range.
Therefore, there are many things to take into account when choosing expatriate medical insurance and it will not just be the level of cover you receive and the amount that the insurer will pay for treatment that will be important. When choosing insurance it is also important to take into account the insurer you are dealing with and to find out whether or not the process of claiming and in turn receiving medical care will be a simple and straightforward one.
Firstly, you need to be well aware exactly where you will be covered. If you plan to stay in the country you will be residing in, you may get insurance much cheaper by excluding other countries from your policy. Likewise, if you do plan to travel to other countries, it will be important to find out if you will be covered in these countries or not.
It is also important to know how claims will be settled and how long claims will take to be processed. If you need immediate attention it is no good having international health insurance that will take many days or even weeks to allow money to be released. It is also important to find out how the money is paid as it this too can have a bearing on how easy it is to find and receive the treatment you need.
However, whilst you will need to make sure that you are fully covered for any eventuality that might befall you, it is also important to check that you are not paying out for cover that you will simply never need. For example, if you are in a very medically advanced country, you are unlikely to need to be repatriated, and therefore you may be able to remove such a clause in favour of other items of expat medical insurance that truly will keep you as safe and healthy as possible, no matter where in the world you happen to be.
to find out more go to www.expatriatehealthcare.com