International health insurance and travel insurance can be complicated to get for the first time. Despite certain similarities, such as the fact that both are designed for travelers who will be away from home for an extended period of time, they are not the same, and choosing the wrong product could compel you to foot the tab for your own medical expenditures, which could be quite expensive.
So, what is the difference between travel insurance and overseas health insurance?
In a nutshell, international health insurance provides full medical coverage to people who move overseas for an extended period of time (typically a year or longer) to live, study, or work.
Travel insurance, on the other hand, is intended for short foreign excursions such as vacations or business trips. It provides financial protection in the event of a medical emergency as well as other unforeseeable catastrophes such as lost or damaged luggage or trip cancellation.
What exactly is a global health insurance plan?
International health insurance, often known as expatriate health insurance, is meant to cover both emergency and routine healthcare when you live or work overseas, away from your home country, for an extended period of time, often twelve months or more.
International health insurance often allows you to select your own hospital and expert, as well as use private medical facilities rather than public ones.
Furthermore, if you have foreign health insurance, you can often receive treatment in any country within your coverage region. You can also give your partner and children the same benefits as you by incorporating them in your international health insurance coverage.
It is usually up to the person to decide whether or not to obtain abroad health insurance. However, you may be obliged by local law in some countries to obtain health insurance coverage while overseas, such as as part of a visa application.
Before getting insurance, do some research on the country you intend to relocate to to ensure you are aware of the local legal requirements.
Who is covered by global health insurance?
The following individuals may think about purchasing foreign health insurance:
- Families and individuals relocating abroad
- People who want to retire overseas
- people who relocate abroad for extended periods of time in order to study, volunteer, or work
- People who frequently travel for work
- international companies
What does global health insurance cover?
The coverage of your overseas health insurance policy will be influenced by the provider and product you select. Your policy papers should include a comprehensive description of what is covered, but in general, overseas health insurance can include the following:
Hospitalization for medical treatment. Nursing care, surgery, diagnostic tests, and hospitalization are examples of such services.
Outpatient medicine is the practice of treating patients in their homes. This category may include consultations, procedures, scans and other diagnostic testing, physiotherapy, and alternative remedies.
Medical evacuation and repatriation
Even though travel insurance may provide some medical coverage and evacuation, international health insurance can provide benefits such as dental care, maternity care, mental health care, long-term cancer care, health checks and screenings, and coverage for chronic conditions that are not covered by travel insurance.
International health insurance is frequently a flexible solution that allows you to tailor your coverage to your specific needs and circumstances.
Typically, there is a choice of cover levels and modular benefits, allowing you to pick and choose the components of the product you need. A variety of exclusions may be offered to help you reduce your premium. Typically, travel insurance does not provide the same level of flexibility and freedom.
What exactly is travel insurance?
Travel insurance is designed for short-term vacations of a few weeks or months. Only travel-related issues, such as trip cancellations or early termination, loss of luggage and other personal goods, missing transportation, and delayed departure, are covered by travel insurance.
Who needs travel insurance?
Travel insurance is intended for people who are traveling overseas for a short period of time, such as:
- vacation for a family or couple
- vacations alone or with others
- Visits to friends and family on adventures and expeditions
- Kindness in travel Business health insurance may cover work-related travel, which may differ from personal travel insurance.
What does travel insurance cover?
A variety of factors can influence your travel insurance coverage, including:
- Where you’re going and your age
- The character of your journey
- If you’re going on a journey with other people,
- Typically, travel insurance covers the following:
- Reductions and cancellations
Transportation neglected or delayed critical medical needs
Items such as luggage and gadgets that are lost or stolen incur legal culpability.
What differentiates travel insurance from international health insurance?
The benefits of international health insurance, which is designed for those who will be abroad for a long time, are frequently greater than those offered by travel insurance, which is designed for people who would be gone for a much shorter time.
It’s important to remember that not all insurers provide the same level of coverage, whether you’re looking for travel insurance or overseas health insurance.
There may be limitations to the various benefits provided, and what one provider covers may not be covered by another.
As a result, it is critical to ensure that the benefits to which you have access are appropriate for their intended purpose. It may be prudent to consult an unbiased broker to ensure that the insurance meets your specific travel and coverage requirements.
We hope that the information in this article about the difference between travel insurance and overseas health insurance proved helpful.
We talked about the difference between travel insurance and foreign medical insurance in our earlier blog. For a free estimate on international health insurance, please contact 0800 999 2013*.
Please be aware that Freedom Health Insurance does not sell travel insurance and is unable to provide you with recommendations regarding the appropriate kind of coverage for your needs. To evaluate several providers and receive unbiased advice, you could use the services of a health insurance broker.
