I pay for health insurance while working here and have done for 15 years. Premiums have risen over that period and I've offset this by reducing policy benefits and paying an excess (£1,000). Now the policy only covers in-patient costs and medical repatriation, yet the premiums have still reached £1,740 per annum this year. This policy is with InterGlobal (Bronze level). I can and will pay if there is no alternative.

I'd really appreciate any information or ideas about credible alternatives?

My understanding is that UK owned Interglobal was bought by American owned Aetna, and with that brought American regulatory requirements for global policies and American marketing and business practices as well. I left them too.

I am now using Swisscare Expatline through a broker in Singapore. Contact information:

Hosham Hatef
Swisscare Team
SWISSCARE Insurance Services
(Switzerland) AG
Chemin de Beaulieu 8
CH-1752 VILLARS SUR GLÂNE

P. +41 26 309 20 40
F. +41 26 309 20 41
h.hatef@swisscare.sg
www.swisscare.ch
www.swisscare.sg

I'd be interested in other opinions on this subject.

Have you considered World Nomads?
Was insured by them once before as they were one of the only people willing to cover workers in Yemen and joined this policy with an insurer who was willing to cover kidnap.

Perhaps they would be your best bet as they were half the price of AIA who insured the workers before that.

I looked into brokerfish, and swisscare also seemed the best value. Just no USA Canada cover, but that's the same with many. Also, only swisscare seemed to have any kind of positive review among the cheaper policies.

Hadn't realised InterGlobal had been taken over. I'm checking out all these suggestions and have until late April to find an alternative. USA is also excluded on my InterGlobal policy.

I should point out World Nomads is a travel insurance company but cover overseas workers in certain fields.

Very clear easy online quotation facility on Swisscare and instant quotation given before having to enter personal information and email address. I like that.

After choosing the basic plan with a 5000 EURO deductible and choosing zero outpatient care, it came up with a quote of 3652 Euro (£2860 or $4090). The 25% no-claim bonus with Interglobal is making their quote look reasonable. Being nearly 65 doesn't help with a new insurer.

I take your point about World Nomads; I'm looking for Expat insurance.

Two or three marginally cheaper quotes using Globalfish but nothing compelling. At least I'm finding out that I'm not paying substantially more with my current insurer than I would elsewhere.
Basic expat insurance can cost a foreign teacher 3-4 months the average salary on offer here.

Option to keep in mind if you really wanna go cheap:

China continent property and casualty insurance company offers a one year cover for 1380 RMB given to Foreign experts here in KM. It's not that great as it covers up to 200,000 RMB for casualties, but it is cheap indeed. As I understand it, it covers 85% of medical costs.

If you are interested, pm me. I will be able to provide you with my papers, but not much else as my company does it for me.

ricsnap, thanks. I believe my employer already has a similar policy taken out on my behalf since it is mandatory for public universities to have foreigners covered. This followed a case a few years back when a teacher became very ill or may have even died at the Financial university - I think. The cost to the university must have been great. As you say, the cost is low and the benefits don't even begin to cover the cost of medi-vac, let alone treatment in the worst case scenario. I know many do without it, but I'm a lousy gambler. I'd wake up every day thinking 'I'm not fully insured'.