The Basics

Expatriates start their life abroad by falling ill. They are stressed about the new job, isolated from friends and family, and probably not at all happy about the new experience of handling their financial affairs long-distance. In many parts of the world, the climate doesn’t help, and wherever they are, their accommodation is probably not what they expected.

Nor do they have resistance to the local germs. So they fall ill with colds and stomach problems, and find that their company medical insurance covers neither visits to the local GP, nor routine outpatient prescriptions. Where the company scheme does provide such cover, the process of claiming is an extra complication that they just don’t need. And even where reciprocal agreements allow expatriates to claim local state health benefits, it is common to be told that

settling the bill directly and writing off the cost is ‘quicker and easier and frankly, it wasn’t that much’.

Paying a bill and forgetting about it is probably as expensive as paying a premium to cover all such bills. But the first problem with new expatriates is that they are not making a straightforward financial calculation. Settling into a new job in a new country, they have enough on their minds; what matters to them most, even if it costs a little extra, is simplicity.

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