Expatriate Health Insurance

For many living in the UK, having private health insurance is still seen as something of a luxury, or a particularly good job perk. However, for those who have chosen to live elsewhere in the world having a private medical care plan is essential. Whilst it is true of many locations that a good standard of healthcare is offered, there is a strong chance that it will not be cheap. Also, it may well be the case that medical standards don't quite match what were used to in the UK, leaving you with very few options if the worst happens and you fall ill whilst you relocate.

Even if good state-funded healthcare is available, the accessibility of medical services can vary greatly depending on the country - youre treatment will also be subject to a number of factors such as how long you have stayed in the country.

These are some of the most important reasons as to why, for peace of mind, a health insurance policy is needed if you are moving abroad.

Communications are so fast these days that expatriates - no matter how far from home they find themselves domiciled - have a wealth of channels open to them through which to keep in touch. And many of them didn't exist just a few short years ago.

In fact, if you go back to the time when your parents were growing up, there would have been few means of contacting people if you were overseas: letter or postcard, landline call, carrier pigeon. That was about it , really. Ah wait - there was of course ham radio, but that tended to be quite a specialised pursuit carried out mainly by enthusiasts rather than ordinary folk wanting to tell their news.

These days you could hardly count the ways to leave a message for someone. Ok, so most of them involve the use of a telecoms infrastructure, but look how they've proliferated to the point that communication is something that we're almost constantly engaged in across these and other platforms:

The phone
SMS
Skype
Email
Facebook/ Twitter etc
Letters
YouTube

And of course the products and services required by people living abroad have now benefited from changes to how we buy things in an electronic world. favourite brand of crisps? - require an
international health insurance quote? it's as easy as switching on the internet.

if you're looking at overseas countries which have the potential to end up being where you actually move to, then you'll want to gather as much information as you possibly can before arriving at any decisions about where to live.

Some newspaper sites such as The Guardian regularly carry expat centred news stories on their pages, but these are more general in nature and are subject rather than country led- meaning that while there's a lot of good stories in there, it's maybe not the best place to look when you're after information about specific countries.

Then of course there are the expat forums - which are great for picking up bits of info that you might not find elsewhere. And where travel is concerned, recent anecdotal info is often very useful indeed. The best tour guide book in the world is of no use if its contents are out of date, whereas a freshly told story from someone in the know can be of great value even if it costs nothing and is available at the click of a mouse.

A good set of country overviews can be found at the site http://www.expatfocus.com/ - where you'll find a very full list of categories for each individual country, covering everything from legal, education and financial stuff right through to langauge, weather and shopping.

You will also find useful country guides on international insurance provider websites such as AXA PPP International covering some of the popular expat destinations.