Report filed under: Health Abroad » Health Insurance Abroad
Thu, March 04, 2010 - 7:56 am EET
Many expats fail to realise that they can lose the right to state healthcare under the NHS system when they move abroad. In fact, it’s commonplace amongst expats to think that if they become poorly abroad they can simply hop on a plane, pop home and have treatment. Whilst hospitals and doctors in the UK are more likely to treat you than not and not charge you, you may get away with it, but you are not necessarily within your rights to do so.
However, a consultation has been launched by the Department of Health to examine whether actually the NHS should be more lenient with those Brits who spend some of their time overseas, and instead of penalising them financially if they return for treatment, costs should be applied to foreign visitors instead to prevent so-called health tourists from visiting Britain for treatment and draining the NHS further.
The consultation is welcome as far as expats are concerned – and perhaps timely as we’re aware how badly performing many NHS trusts are as they are so underfunded. If the UK can find a way to treat its citizens fairly but charge foreign visitors for care instead, surely that makes sense?
Report filed under: Health Abroad » Keeping Healthy Abroad
Mon, January 25, 2010 - 9:30 am EET
A recent report in the Telegraph has highlighted the view of some of the British expatriates who are now living in Spain and paying the so-called ‘care tax’ each month; this is the tax payment that enables them to have access to the local healthcare system if they are ineligible for free care on a reciprocal agreement basis with the UK.
We ran an article that looked at whether expats in Spain are better off paying this tax or buying an international insurance policy purely on a cost basis, but the Telegraph feature looked specifically at whether those paying the local tax actually felt they were getting good service and treatment levels for their monthly contribution.
As the article finds, not only is the Spanish bureaucracy associated with taxation and accessing the healthcare system in general not as onerous and inaccessible as first thought, but the actual medical care available in Spain is of a high standard, with any tax payment towards accessing care also deemed affordable.
Report filed under: Health Abroad » Keeping Healthy Abroad
Thu, January 21, 2010 - 7:50 am EET
Spanish politicians and doctors have launched an attack against British expatriates who seek treatment for medical conditions when in Spain, and they have accused such Brits of being a drain on limited resources.
One needs to scrape below the surface quite a way to discover why this attack has been levelled at Britons’ doors in particular, and what the expats are actually allegedly guilty of: but one thing the attack certainly does is ‘focus the mind!’ I.e., the Spanish attack on British expatriate patients brings the message home loud and clear – ‘Get Health Insurance!’ – or risk being left high and dry.
In a bid to clarify the position for British expats who’re thinking of moving to live, work or retire to Spain, this report will outline who is eligible for free health care in Spain, what your EHIC (European Health Insurance Card) will cover you for and when and why you really do need to get private medical insurance in place depending on your status.
Report filed under: Health Abroad » Health Insurance Abroad
Thu, January 14, 2010 - 8:02 am EET
Getting medical insurance in place is a requirement for all but a very limited few expatriates. The fact of the matter usually is, you move abroad, you lose healthcare entitlements back home and are ineligible for free care in your new nation, so you have to get at least some basic health insurance in place.
Because, just like all insurances, it’s a nuisance to have to arrange medical insurance, most people are happy to compare and contrast on price, find a happy medium between cover and cost, and sign up to whoever is offering the best deal. However, the fact of the matter is, not all medical insurers offer a good deal for the individual expatriate customer.
For example, some throw in medical evacuation cover, some insist you have it at great cost, and with other policies it’s an add-on that a lot of people choose to ignore. So, let’s take a look, is medical evacuation cover for expatriates actually a necessity that you could really benefit from, or simply an unnecessary expense?
Report filed under: Health Abroad » Health Insurance Abroad
Tue, January 05, 2010 - 8:00 am EET
As all expats know, international medical insurance is big business with companies competing for business within a large market pool of demand. Premiums charged are high, and getting higher annually as we’re repeatedly told that inflation in the medical services industry runs far higher than in the ‘real world.’
So, what do all of these insurance companies do to attract our attention and win our business? They attempt to offer us more bells and whistles on our policies to attract us and our financial commitment…however, there’s a definite limit to the amount of cover one needs, and this means that at some point, international health insurance companies have to get creative to get our interest.
Last year we saw some companies change the way they offered insurance and move to a more modular, streamlined and cost effective way of insuring their clients’ health – and this year it seems that IntegraGlobal has come up with yet another advantage that they can offer their clients. Thanks to their IntegraGlobal electronic health records account, powered by Zaptag, portable medical record technology is now available to expatriates. But is this a gimmick or actually something of maximum benefit to an international citizen?
According to a Telegraph report, brokers are letting expatriates down when it comes to finding them the best international health insurance for their needs and their budget – so we’re on hand to help…
It turns out that the NHS isn’t so perfect after all, and when it comes to cancer and heart attack survival rates, you’re better off abroad – so expatriates needn’t now worry so much about their healthcare when they relocate perhaps?…
Do all expatriates have to have an all singing all dancing international health insurance policy that breaks the bank and covers them for all eventualities? Not necessarily as we will reveal……
Aviva, a new name on the expatriate international health insurance scene, is good news for those seeking price and insurance level competition…