by Thomas Kua

In Part I of "How to select an International Health Insurance plan that is right for me?", we have described the first three questions that you should ask yourself before deciding which International Health Insurance plan is suitable for you. The three questions are:

1. Am I traveling or relocating?

2. Where will I be traveling to?

3. What are the medical cares that I may need while overseas?

In this Part II of the Paper, we will present two more questions for your consideration and they are described in the following paragraphs.

4. How much am I prepared to fork out for these medical expenses?

The answer to this question will help you to decide which plan to choose in terms of Deductible level, Coinsurance percentage and Overall Maximum Limit.

Deductible is basically what you have to pay first before your insurance plan pays; it is part of your cost sharing. Hence, a deductible of $250 means that you are responsible for the first $250 of eligible claim before your insurance benefit kicks in. All things being equal, the higher the Deductible level, the lower the premium.

Beside Deductible, International Health Insurance plans may also come with Coinsurance as another form of policyholder's cost sharing. Coinsurance is usually in the form of 80%/20% meaning the insurance plan pays 80% of eligible claim and policyholder pays the other 20%.

Overall Maximum Limit is the maximum dollar amount of benefits the insurance plan will pay out. It can be defined in terms of Per Certificate Period or Per Lifetime. The Overall Maximum Limit for International Health Insurance can vary from USD 1,000,000 to USD 5,000,000 or even higher.

As expected, different levels and combinations of Deductible, Coinsurance and Overall Maximum Limit will give rise to different premium rates.

The detailed explanations of these benefit items are beyond the scope of this paper. For more information, readers are encouraged to refer to the link provided in the resource box.

5. Are there better alternatives to manage the risks?

The real risks we are talking about here are risks of:

• Not knowing where to go or who to turn to when you have a medical situation in a foreign country;
• Exposing yourself or your loved ones to sub-standard medical care that may further exacerbate your pain and suffering and putting your life at risk;
• Emergency medical situations that may require you to be evacuated to save your life;
• Emergency situations that develop due to act of war, terrorism or natural disaster.

Unfortunately, the above calamities are real in the world that we all live in today. From the financial point of view, it is not wise for an individual to assume all the above risks. Furthermore, some of these risks are far beyond financial and in the case of an emergency it could mean live or death.

With a comprehensive International Travel Medical Insurance or International Health Insurance plan, the above risks can be mitigated cost effectively. For example, you can get $1,000,000 International Travel Medical Insurance coverage at as low as $1.50 per day and U$5,000,000 International Health Insurance coverage also at the same low cost per day. This is probably less than the cost of a bottle of mineral water!

So, let's recap. Here are the questions you need to answer first before deciding which International Health Insurance plan is right for you and your family:

1. Am I traveling or relocating?

2. Where will I be traveling to?

3. What are the medical cares that I may need while overseas?

4. How much am I prepared to fork out for these medical expenses?

5. Are there better alternatives to manage the risks?

Go see the world, but don't leave home without a good International Health Insurance!

Thomas Kua is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (USA) with more than 15 years of experience in health insurance. Tom is the founder of GHI (Global Health Insurance) Specialists, a firm specializes in providing quality International Health Insurance solutions to customers worldwide. For more information on quality International Health Insurance plans please visit: => www.BuyInternationalTravelHealthInsurance.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Thomas_Kua