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Global health insurance & multiple residencies

zzzzzz

well-known Member
Feb 12, 2020
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Those of you who are residents in multiple countries - digital nomads, global investors, global citizens... what type of health insurance do you use? Is there any affordable global package that covers specific countries that you choose from a list, where do you want to be insured? Or do you use multiple local health insurances? I'm looking for something that covers EU and UAE.

What are your experiences when you actually have insurance claim? Any problems? How much is your premium per year?
 
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Bupa, Cigna, AXA, and Allianz are among the most popular international health insurers for the digital nomad type person. Premiums depends on package and coverage. Can be anywhere from 1-2,000 to over 10,000. They all have online calculators you can use to get a quote.

Coverage is normally global except US and sometimes a few other countries like Japan, Canada, and Switzerland.
 
I have noticed it's important to look at details with every insurance company package. If they don't mention things like inpatient care, cancer treatment... just skip them.
Mentioning is one thing but the easy ability to recover your money is another. With those digital nomad health insurances you have to pay upfront for all outpatient visits, treatments, only inpatients would be settled directly by Letter of Guarantee. I used Now Health (underwritten by AXA) for some time and never had any issues, also what's nice is that for claims under $500 it was not even required to provide doctor's report on the insurance claim, just the invoice. However they are pretty expensive. Later I moved to Aviva Gulf Solutions which was also great. They refunded 100% of fees no matter which doctor or hospital you chose. For them also the invoice was enough to reimburse. They quit the UAE market and their customer base was taken over by Aetna. Aetna is okay but they have these customary & reasonable clause in their conditions. So for example they did not pay my wife's c-section delivery in Dubai in full (let's say they covered 80%). Reason is we used independent expensive doctor who works with top hospitals instead of taking hospital package with "in house" doctor.

There is sadly no perfect health insurance, I have reviewed them all. They usually have similar wording with some odd exceptions here and there, such as Aetna excluding brain related disorders...
 
This is the advantage of so-called socialist countries such as Germany. Here it is forbidden by law to exclude diseases or to refuse to accept a customer. Even if you come back after decades abroad due to illnesses, you will be welcomed with open arms.
 
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