Expatriate Group Insurance Should Begin Immediately

One of the biggest problems multinational employers make is waiting too long to establish expatriate group insurance plans like expatraite health insurance. Most of the good carriers that specialize in expatriate insurance begin benefit programs for expatriates at just two employee lives, even if there are no dependents.

Most global organizations don't think 2,3, or even 5 expats are a big deal, and they normally continue under the U.S. health program and other U.S. fringe benefit programs. Once the group starts to grow, other priorities at the company may push the expat project to the bottom of the list. Soon a company may have over 10 people living or travelling overseas under home country plans and this can become a ticking time bomb.

First, U.S. life and disability plans (or any home country plan if talking about TCN employees) may not pay claims if they discover the employee is permanently residing abroad. Many problems can come out of using the U.S. health plan including claims abroad seen as "out of network" and prescription drug claims denied by "not being on the U.S. FDA list" of eligible drugs.

A good rule of thumb is, for each expat an employer adds without establishing a formal expatriate group insurance plan, the chances of a major problem increase by 10 fold.

Group Medical Insurance for Expatriates

McKinley International Risk Management has compiled a list of the advantages of an expatriate group insurance program for expatriates. Most companies wait until the expat group has grown to a larger number, or wait until a problem occurs to implement and expatriate group medical insurance scheme. With today's international group plans only needing 2 expat lives to qualify, there is no reason at all to wait. Why start an international group insurance plan at just two expats:

1. U.S. domestic medical plans cannot work directly with foreign hospitals and doctors. Expats need to front all funds and seek reimbursement back in the home country.
2. Expat group medical plans can accommodate non-U.S. expatriates called Third Country National Employees. In some cases, they can add local nationals. No U.S. medical plan can do this.
3. Expatriate group plans begin at just two employees.
4. These plans add other lines of coverage important to international assignees: international dental insurance, international group life insurance, international group disability, medical evacuation. For example, group life and LTD cannot be purchased for just a few expatriates on their own.
5. The cost of expat group insurance is really no more than what you are paying now, or budgeting for now under the U.S. program.
6. It can save a tremendous amount of time and aggravation on both the global expat and the home office benefit staff having to fix problems.

If plans are available at two employees working abroad, there is no more any reason to wait.