While relocating as a family can be an incredible adventure, it can also bring unique challenges around dealing with culture shock, finding suitable education institutions for children, and ensuring you have access to world-class healthcare should you need it.
Why get cover for the whole family?
The quality of healthcare systems and how they work can vary wildly, even between immediately neighbouring countries. What may be considered routine and affordable care in one location could be hugely expensive or unavailable in another.
International health insurance can help to ensure:
- That you and your family can get the medical attention you need, when you need it, whether that be for routine treatment or serious conditions.
- You can access world-class private healthcare facilities, which are often of a better standard and provide more comprehensive treatments than public or universal healthcare locations.
- Consistency in any treatment and healthcare you receive, even if you move between countries. For example, if you have a Now Health International WorldCare plan, this would move with you should you relocate again!
Key benefits to look for when choosing health insurance for your family
While any high-quality private health plan will offer a broad range of benefits and features, you should pay special attention to those more relevant to your family situation. Here is a range of the vital family-specific benefits featured in Now Health International plans that will give you and your family peace of mind when living overseas.
Parent Accommodation Benefit
The hospitalisation of a child for any reason is challenging, and having a parent with them can provide a significant emotional and psychological lift. Our private health plans offer a Parent Accommodation Benefit that covers all of one parent's costs to stay with their child when they're admitted for eligible in-patient treatment, assuming the location where the treatment is taking place has such facilities.
Ensure you have a health plan that enables you to support your child during this stressful, often frightening time and help to get their recovery off to the best possible start.
Vaccination and Optical Optional Benefits
Vaccinations are a critical component of preventative healthcare, particularly for children. However, like the standard and availability of healthcare, vaccination programs can differ significantly between countries, too. And in this situation, it's understandable as a parent that you may worry if your child cannot get a vaccination that they would have been able to back home.
Our optional vaccination benefit means you may be able to access a vaccine not available via the public healthcare system in your new country of residence.
If you join Now Health International, the same benefit includes optical cover, which ensures you and your children can access eye tests whenever needed.
Note that a six-month waiting period applies for both of these benefits.
Cover for growing families
We understand if you choose to settle permanently overseas that your family may grow beyond what it was when you moved.
While all our award-winning WorldCare plans cover medical conditions during pregnancy, our WorldCare Apex plans also cover routine maternity care and all medically necessary costs incurred during normal pregnancy and childbirth.
What’s more, you can add your newborn to your family health insurance plan, too!
Dental cover
It’s increasingly accepted that dental hygiene is a strong indicator of overall health, with research linking serious conditions like strokes and cardiovascular disease to oral health. And from a family perspective, we all know that childhood is when we establish good dental routines that stay with us for our lifetimes, which includes regular checkups.
Choosing a health plan offering dental cover ensures you and your family can undertake regular checkups and get any treatment you need as soon as possible.
Medical evacuation and overseas treatment options
In the event of severe illness or injury, having medical evacuation and overseas treatment options means that, depending on the situation, you can be:
- Returned to your country of residence
- Be transported to another country that can offer better treatment
- Moved to your home country, if you and your family would be more comfortable there – this can be particularly valuable in the case of a child's illness.
You may never need to use these benefits, especially if you're living in a country with robust healthcare infrastructure and best-in-class facilities, but it's better to have the benefit and never use it than be faced with a hefty medical bill if something tragic happens.
Access to specialists and advanced treatments
While we hope that you’ll mostly use your health plan, if at all, for routine healthcare, having the right insurance also means your family is covered for complex conditions and needs.
A comprehensive health plan can provide access to a broader network of specialists and may also allow you and your family to access advanced and experimental treatments not available via the public healthcare system in your country of residence.
This all means that your family can receive the best possible care for whatever health issues arise, no matter where you live.
How to choose the right health plan for your family
Now you understand why you should get international health insurance for your family and know which benefits to look for, let’s explore how you should go about it.
- Consider your family’s needs. Think about the specific health needs of your family and potential future needs like maternity care.
- Compare plans. Look at different plans and their benefits, coverage limits, exclusions, and costs, so that you can ensure you get the health insurance you need at a price you can afford. Compare all our plans or get a quote here.
- Check provider networks to ensure you're satisfied with the availability of healthcare providers in the country you're moving to and in any other countries you may travel to during your period of cover.
- Understand the terms by reading policy documents carefully and being aware of any waiting periods and exclusions, as well as pre-approval and claim procedures. View our brochures in our Document Library.
Give yourself the moving gift of peace of mind with Now Health International!
Relocating overseas is an exciting opportunity and a significant step – which means you need to spend a lot of time carefully planning your move.
International health insurance is an essential investment that will help ensure you and your family have access to world-class healthcare whenever you need it and wherever life takes you.
By understanding what you should look out for and the benefits available, you’ll be able to find what you need and give yourself peace of mind when you start your new adventure.
Get a quote from Now Health International now.