What to Look for When Choosing International Health Insurance

When you are traveling outside your home country, purchasing international health insurance is highly recommended, as it would generally cover any new medical conditions, injuries or accidents that may occur after the effective date of the policy.

However, there are primarily two types of international health insurance plans:

• Short-term Travel Medical Insurance
  Primarily designed for short trips of a few days to few weeks or even few months. Some short-term plans actually go up to 1 year, 2 years or even 3 years.
• Expatriate Health Insurance
  Annually renewable major medical insurance meant to cover those who live outside their home country for an extended period of time such as expatriates.

There are quite a few products available from many different companies. The choices can be overwhelming. Fortunately, all major international health insurance from major US based companies are located right on this website. You can get the instant quotes, compare them side by side and apply online. You don't have to go through dozens of websites or call around several places and try to figure out what is right for you. There is an extensive amount of information available in various articles in our Guide section.

Plan Benefits

While shopping for international health insurance, there are several aspects to look for:

• Medical Policy Maximum:
  It is the maximum amount the insurance company will pay for eligible medical expenses. The cheapest ones start at $25,000 and go all the way up to $8,000,000. We recommend that you typically choose $500,000 or more.
• Emergency Medical Evacuation:
  If you were to get serious sick or injured in a foreign country, and if you need to be transported to a location where adequate care can be given, such transportation can be very expensive and very challenging to arrange it yourself. Fortunately, both travel medical insurance as well as expatriate health insurance plans include emergency medical evacuation coverage which provides the transportation to the nearest place where adequate care can be given.
• Deductible:
  Deductible is amount you will have to pay before the insurance company will pay anything. Therefore, it is very important to choose the right deductible. Choosing a very high deductible may save you some money upfront, but if you need to use the insurance, it will cost a lot in out of pocket expenses.
• Exclusions:
  Both travel medical insurance and international private medical insurance (iPMI) will have exclusions and the insurance companies will not pay for it. Compared to travel medical insurance, expatriate health insurance has less exclusions and may also provide other benefits such as wellness visits, maternity etc.
  
  It is very important to look through the list of exclusions, and not just the benefits, to make sure that you are getting the coverage you may need.

Reviews

Nowadays, there are many reviews available on the internet for everything. You can keep searching, and finding more to read; however, it is very important to know, particularly in the insurance field, that most people only write about their negative experiences and rarely do people share their positive experiences. Moreover, the positive reviews of a given insurance company on their website or on the website controlled by them may be written by themselves or they may be paid reviews.

Therefore, the reviews you find online don't always give an accurate picture of an insurance product or company on its own. Please don't rely solely on the reviews you find. Talk to a licensed insurance professional who has experience with international health insurance plans including travel medical insurance. Our licensed professionals can help you understand the plan benefits of the insurance plans available for you to help you decide which plan is most suitable for your needs. Contact us for any assistance you need.