If you’re an entrepreneur whose business involves having your employees travel from country to country for varying stretches of time, then you may have considered getting health insurance for them.
It’s a prudent thing to do—after all, you are sending them off to remote locations to work for you, so it’s your responsibility to ensure that they’re financially protected should something unfortunate happen to them that could compromise their health or well-being.
But you may be wondering if it’s worth the trouble and the expense. Why not just have them take traveler’s insurance? Better yet, why not just instruct them to ask the home office to wire them money in cases of medical emergencies?
While these and other alternatives may seem to make sense, the fact of the matter is that the benefits of having international medical insurance for your employees outnumber the possible downsides. Here are just a few of the benefits of having international health insurance:
- Your employees are covered wherever they are. Nothing is worse than having a health emergency in another country and finding out that your expensive insurance plan doesn’t apply to that specific country—or anywhere outside the country where you originally got the insurance from. International health insurance from providers like Now Health International gives your employees coverage across borders, countries, and continents. This means that wherever they may end up, they are guaranteed the highest quality of healthcare possible for their emergency or health condition.
- All your employees’ medical expenses are covered. Travel insurance packages only cover property/luggage theft, travel cancellations, and short-term emergency medical treatments. International health insurance, on the other hand, covers a wider scope of medical procedures and solutions that your employees may need during their stay abroad. It includes not just emergency treatment but also routine checkups and elective procedures for pre-existing or chronic conditions. In short, it guarantees that all aspects of your employees’ health will be taken care of.
- It gives them premium access to healthcare. The standards of healthcare differ from country to country. This is especially true if your employees are traveling to developing countries, where standard public medical facilities and personnel may not be as well-equipped as those in the US or in Europe. By giving your employees international health insurance, you are guaranteeing them the highest level of healthcare right off the bat. This, in turn, gives them the freedom of getting the procedure, treatment facility, and other amenities that are appropriate for their condition— freedom they may not be afforded if only the standard public healthcare is available to them.
- It protects your company and employees from financial loss. While it may seem like a good idea to just give your employees a regular monthly stipend for medical expenses, this practice can drain your finances and that of your employees in the long run. International health insurance ensures that beneficiaries only spend a minimal amount, out-of-pocket, for any covered medical procedure or treatment. There’s also the fact that healthcare prices can vary wildly from country to country and the monthly stipend provided by your company may not be sufficient or readily available in case something big suddenly comes up.
- It gives your employees peace of mind. Lastly, by being covered with international health insurance, your employees will feel safer and more secure no matter where they are. This has a net effect in how efficient and how productive they will be during their day-to-day tasks. A happy and healthy employee is a productive employee.
Getting international health insurance for your employees is far from an unnecessary expense. A person that’s stationed to a place far from home and family needs all the support they can get, so an international health insurance is more of an essential precautionary measure than a form of luxury.
