Travelling, and indeed relocating, with international private medical insurance is essential to you and your family enjoying the experience. But once you’ve signed on the dotted line, does your provider then do enough? It’s an important decision, choosing your medical insurance, especially if you’re covering a family too. It takes time and effort researching the type of package that best suits your needs, and then researching which company offers the best of those packages, considering your financial situation, your domestic circumstances and your geographical location.

So once these big decisions have been made, does your provider then do enough? More often than not health insurance companies will have tiered levels of cover, premium, standard, and gold, are typical names for them. However this shouldn’t lead to tiered levels of assistance for their customers. When you’re in a foreign land and something goes wrong it can be worrying to say the least, and terrifying in the worst case scenario, so you need to the full cooperation and support of your expat health insurance provider. Currency flexibility is a key ingredient here. After the tribulations of getting ill or having an accident and having to visit a foreign hospital the last thing you want is anxieties about your insurance paying out, will it be the right amount and what currency will it come in? With exchange rates fluctuating and an ever weakening EU this latter point is extremely poignant.

Currency flexibility can not only save you from anxiety but also be a massive convenience. For example, a UK backpacker travelling through Thailand could pay their premium in Thai Baht. However after making a claim due to an accident in Vietnam you can choose to be reimbursed in Vietnamese Dong. Some providers will allow you to claim your settlement in any currency you wish, depending on your requirements at the time.

A good health insurance company will tailor their services to the varying lifestyles of their wide customer base. Some clients may travel often and therefore require their payout in a different currency to the country where they experience trouble, be it an accident or illness. This level of service is not commonplace in the industry but it is slowly improving as the market becomes more competitive, providers have to do their utmost in order to attract new customers so we can expect to see this sort of practice become standard fairly soon.