The term ‘international’ when applied to health insurance generally means a plan with an administration in the US/Europe and with a focus on providing cover to expatriates. Some plans are very expatriate-focused and will stop cover if you return to live in your home country, most especially if this is the US, Canada or Germany.
There are basically 2 kinds of international plans, namely those plans provided through:
*an insurance company plan directly or via an intermediary working alongside the insurer.
*a managing agent with the responsibility for marketing and underwriting claims, with an underwriter contracted to provide cover for a no. of years. An example would be ‘April Health Insurance’, which acts as a HK managing agent for ‘Liberty International’. Other similar examples include ‘William Russell’, 'ALC (a la Carte)', etc all of which are technically intermediaries, rather than insurers in their own rights.
Normally you will not be able to get a guarantee of renewal from managing agents, because they are not the insurers and because they cannot predict the future of their portfolio and whether in the next round of negotiations with an insurer, they will actually be able to agree renewal terms.
The insurance providers whose contract can be relied upon, whether the intermediary who sold the plan is still serving them or not. This style of company is normally more prepared to issue a renewal guarantee, because everything is under their own control.
