Expatriate group medical insurance has been used effectively for over 15 years to replace the U.S. domestic or home country medical plan for expatriates residing outside of their home country for six months or longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Excellent programs exist in the market to serve expatriate group insurance needs for almost any nationality and any situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What we find today is that, amazingly, many corporations, universities, and even non-profit organizations leave their international assignees under a home country, or U.S. medical program that provides almost no international service and there can be major gaps and holes in coverage. There are 10 reasons for an expatriate group medical plan for every 1 against. (below)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Global organizations with just 2 or more expatriates are utilizing expatriate group medical schemes for the following reasons:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The following discussion takes a “best practices” approach examining what the leading companies in their industry are offering their expatriates. Of course, there will be variations among industries and between organizations depending on the corporate culture, the assignment location, and the type of work being performed. What is outlined below is a very broad brush overview, but it certainly can be used to examine your own expatriate policy or help develop one if expatriates are new to your organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
North American companies typically offer the following international group insurance to U.S. or Canadian expatriates. These lines are typically paid by the employer entirely or offered with a small amount of employee cost sharing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The cost of an expatriate can be extremely high of course. Studies by the National Foreign Trade council consistently places the cost of an expatriate at well over $1,000,000 for a three year assignment if you include salary in the equation. With a weak dollar vs. foreign currencies such as the GBP, Euro, or Yen, the cost of an expatriate gets even higher as we move toward 2010. The key concept stressed in best practices associated with expatriates is not to go cheap on the list above. An unsuccessful expatriate that goes out on a 3 year assignment and returns after 9 months is going to cost your organization a lot more than any cost savings that can be generated by securing the coverages above with the cheapest carriers in the market. The key is to put in a very solid benefits structure that will help the employee succeed and make it to the end of the assignment, having accomplished the tasks you have laid out for them in the original assignment letter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Group Medical Insurance to Replace the Home Country Medical Plan for Expatriates. Expatriate group medical<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"yoast_head":"\n