Ignoring Health Insurance is Dangerous to Your Wealth!

You insure the house without hesitation, you insure the car too, so why do so many expats refuse to insure their own health?

Maybe you are perfectly fit and healthy, never been ill apart from the odd hang over or two, and besides somewhere in your wallet there is a plastic card with some foreign writing that your boss gave you assuring you it covers you in the event of being sick! Or does it?

The vast majority of us enjoy good health everyday of our working lives and any thoughts of illness or injury seldom stir the back of our minds. The reality is that we are all vulnerable and the prospect of becoming ill or damaging limbs is not as unlikely as we would care to imagine.

Visiting the busy urban areas of Asian cities we have all seen the motorcycles with 3 passengers weaving amongst the traffic, normally loaded with a few live chickens and a full size colour television and driven by the ten year old daughter with her left arm pressed against her ear listening to her friends gossip on the latest mobile phone-and then the inevitable coming together with another motorcycle or expatriate who thought the traffic lights actually meant something!

Many large companies include" healthcare Schemes" as part of a remuneration

Package for their employees. This is a very generous 'extra' for the expatriate who is able to travel feeling secure in the knowledge that medical care is always within easy reach.

Please now check your provider, unfortunately many group schemes fall in the hands of the locally based human resources manager who is looking at bottom line rather than the needs of its over paid expat workforce and use local insurance providers, low cost to the employer but the actual benefits will reflect this.

In addition if they insist on local hospitals then how do you speak the language convey your symptoms- the offshore providers allow you to visit the hospitals with facilities for overseas patients and have a higher threshold regarding fees.

It is an alarming fact that many expatriates tend to ignore or simply do not realise the financial implications of not having sufficient health cover whilst they are away from their native lands. Let us take a very simple scenario in which a person is unfortunate enough to have a car accident and fall unconscious without putting in place a healthcare scheme prior to their accident.

They will be attended by the ambulance crew and then dispatched to the nearest hospital; at this point rather than them making you better they will be looking to see how they are going to be re reimbursed, failure to provide suitable guarantees can seriously delay medical help and is some instances this can prove fatal. Assuming you can provide a guarantee of payment how do the fees mount up?

Literally everything is a cost; it is like the mini bar at the hotel, never ending! We have Ambulance, X Rays, Surgeons fees, Anesthetists fees, Consultancy fees, Theatre costs, Hospital accommodation, Physiotherapy, Pharmacy costs. The list seems endless and the cost of treatment can cause grave damage to what once may have been a healthy bank balance.

The fact of the matter is that ill health or injury visits us all from time to time and to rely purely on good fortune is at best "imprudent" and very risky when one considers the costs involved. Using a car accident is a very tame example when compared to someone who falls gravely ill and is in need of constant medical care.

The situation deteriorates quickly and becomes far more serious in relation to costs.Medical fees have always been a very heavy outlay to such an extent that an uninsured patient could face virtual ruin.

At the outset the cost of a scheme can seem a very expensive outgoing, however if it is balanced against the peace of mind from potential costs of funding medical care it will be an inexpensive necessity.