A concise primer on how international cover works — written for those making the decision.
013 min read
Travel insurance and IPMI solve different problems
Travel insurance is built for a trip — a set number of days, a return ticket, and a cap on anything beyond emergency treatment. International Private Medical Insurance (IPMI) is built for a life abroad — ongoing care, chronic conditions, maternity, and routine treatment for as long as you're based there.
If you're relocating rather than travelling, a travel policy typically won't renew, won't cover anything you already had before you left, and rarely extends beyond stabilising an emergency and facilitating repatriation. IPMI is medically underwritten cover designed to function as your primary healthcare cover in the country you live in — the two aren't interchangeable, and using the wrong one is the most common gap we see once someone's already living overseas.
023 min read
What happens if you're uninsured and unwell abroad
In much of the world, treatment must be paid for before it is provided. Private hospitals across the Gulf, and large parts of Asia and Africa, routinely require a deposit — sometimes the full estimated cost — before admitting a non-national patient, insured or not.
Public healthcare systems are frequently unavailable to foreign residents, means-tested, or simply not built for the volume of expatriates in a given city. Emergency medical evacuation, where required, is priced per flight hour and per medical team — a single cross-border MedEvac can amount to tens or even hundreds of thousands, depending on the circumstances. This is precisely why the cover exists, and why we always begin by establishing where you are versus where you would need to be treated.
032 min read
Why your premium moves with age and location
Premiums are priced from two inputs: age band and the cost of care where you're covered. Neither is arbitrary — five-year age bands reflect standard actuarial risk pooling, and area-of-cover pricing reflects that healthcare costs in the United States are materially higher than in most other regions.
The variables you can adjust are area of cover (worldwide, worldwide-excluding-US, or a single region), deductible (how much you carry before cover applies), and payment frequency. None of these change your care — only what you pay to access it — and adjusting any of them is a routine part of the renewal process.
The long read
A Comprehensive Guide to Global Health Risk Mitigation
Our in-depth analysis on protecting internationally mobile individuals, families and teams.
