“INTERNATIONAL HEALTH INSURANCE INSIGHTS”
JULY – AUGUST – SEPTEMBER, 2010
Published by Good Neighbor Insurance, Inc. (GNI)
Editor: Jeff Gulleson
01. International Group or Individual Insurance–What’s Best?
02. Boomer International Travel Insurance
03. Insurance That Covers Volcanic Ash Delays
04. Should You Recommend or Require Overseas Travel Insurance?
05. Cut Your International Money Transfer Costs by 50 Percent
06. A New Short-term Team Plan with Trip Cancellation
07. Pre-existing Conditions Medical Coverage
08. Book of the Quarter: ?The River of Doubt?
09. Good Neighbor Blog: Up-to-Date International Insurance Information
10. English Teaching & Work Opportunities outside the United States
11. Insurance Products Carried by GNI
12. Who Can Be Covered & Information Needed for an Insurance Quote
13.Insurance Brochures for Individuals and/or Teams
14. Linking to the GNI Website
15. When You Can Reach Us in Our Office
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1. INTERNATIONAL GROUP OR INDIVIDUAL INSURANCE–WHAT’S BEST?
Individual insurance will be less expensive for the younger worker and more expensive for the older worker. Insurance rates increase based on the age of the insured. You don?t have to wait for group consensus to make your decision regarding the kind of insurance coverage you want and when you want it to become effective. You also can tweak your plan without getting other people?s input. Individual international health insurance will not cover you long-term if you should return to the USA in need of long-term medical care. If you have serious pre-existing conditions, you will probably be declined when applying for a U.S. individual health insurance plan.
Group insurance will generally be less expensive for older workers. Should you return home with long-term medical needs, you can be assured of long-term health insurance coverage. By showing a “Certificate of Insurance” from your group insurance carrier, you will be able to purchase insurance from any health insurance company in the USA.
Group insurance provides a sense of cohesiveness in your overseas team of workers. It also guarantees that all new employees will be accepted for coverage with no pre-existing condition restrictions. On individual plans, some qualified workers, because of their medical condition, may be rejected for individual coverage. This will not happen with group insurance.
If you have a group of even two employees, it is to your advantage to take out international group health insurance. You are then providing the best international coverage for your present workers and assuring that your future employees will be able to purchase insurance as well.
TWEET-ABLE – International Group or Individual Insurance. What is best? [Tweet this]
2. BOOMER INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL INSURANCE
Good Neighbor Insurance was able to place a five-minute presentation of international travel insurance for Boomers (ages 40-74 plus) on the Hallmark Channel on June 1. We were encouraged to also provide a special section on our website for “Boomers.” On this site, you will find options for “Full Pre-existing Conditions,? “Trip Cancellation,” and “Full Medical Evacuation.”
There is also a “Key Comparison Chart” that helps you quickly see various benefits from four key plans for Boomers, along
with their rates. You canaccess the site by going to www.gninsurance.com/Boomers or by going to www.gninsurance.com and clicking on the Boomer banner at the top of the left panel.
By the way, you will also see a short 2:47 minute video on “Travel Tips” that you might find interesting.
TWEET-ABLE: Boomer International Travel Insurance Comparison Chart. [Tweet this]
3. INSURANCE THAT COVERS NATURAL DISASTER DELAYS
Frustration was felt for thousands of stranded travelers in Europe and the USA due to the explosion of Iceland?s volcano last April. The delays cost travelers thousands of dollars. Sleeping on the airport floor may be free, but it is certainly not comfortable, and certainly not a good idea for days.
Most trip cancellation plans provided coverage if you were in Iceland and your flight was cancelled due to volcanic ash. But if you were in Europe or North America, those plans would not cover a cancelled flight.
Good Neighbor Insurance has a good trip cancellation plan that will cover you if your trip is cancelled or delayed due to volcanic ash,even if you are not in the country where the volcano exists. It is easy to apply for this trip cancellation plan online.
TWEET-ABLE – Insurance that covers volcanic ash delays. [Tweet this]
4. SHOULD WE RECOMMEND OR REQUIRE OVERSEAS TRIP INSURANCE?
If you knew when an accident was going to happen, there would be very few accidents. Since we don’t know, we have insurance “if” an accident happens. Insurance is our best protection against the unknown.
We recently heard of a young woman who gave her life to service in South Africa. She had a great heart for people, always thinking of others, a hard worker, and her friends say a wonderful smile. On April 24 she was driving a young man home because of an illness. They had a head-on collision with another car. She was killed instantly. Others in the vehicle with her were injured.
This fine young woman had no premonition that she would die in South Africa. In fact, if she is like most of us, it never crossed her mind. But did she have trip insurance? The leaders of her NGO recommended that she purchase some overseas insurance, but they did not require it. In most cases, a “recommendation” will work, and travelers will buy insurance. But sometimes young travelers feel invulnerable and say, “Nothing will happen to me.” Probably the best rule of thumb is to require that everyone traveling and working under the auspices of your NGO have international travel insurance.
Global trip insurance provides medical evacuation and medical care for all medical needs while overseas. And it costs as little as $1.50 to $2.00 per day for travelers in their thirties.
TWEET-ABLE – Should we recommend or require overseas trip insurance? [Tweet this]
5. HOW TO CUT YOUR INTERNATIONAL MONEY TRANSFER COSTS BY 50 PERCENT
We recently wired $75 to a worker in India.The bank transfer cost was $45, thereby increasing our cost by more than half. We also made another transfer to Indonesia which cost $20 to wire.
GNI is now working with an international finance company that is enabling us to cut our transfer costs in half. This company has been in business for 24 years, and they can do foreign exchange transfers as well as U.S. dollars.
The funds will be delivered to a Visa- or MasterCard-branded debit, credit, or prepaid card account anywhere in the world. Not only that, the recipient?s transfer fee is free to them. We?ve tried it and it works! The transactions are received within two days.
Good Neighbor Insurance is now using the
company in order to make international fund transfers. We would like to
introduce you to this service. It can save your company, NGO or organization thousands of dollars if used over several years. To get details on this ?International Fund Transfer? service, please visit www.gninsurance.com/additional-services.
TWEET-ABLE: How to cut your international money transfer costs by 50%. [Tweet this]
6. A NEW SHORT-TERM TEAM PLAN WITH TRIP CANCELLATION
We now have a new low-rate, custom short-term team plan for Good Neighbor Insurance clients only. The rates are as low as $1.01 cents a day for travelers ages 30 to 79, and only $0.93 a day for travelers up to 29. You also have the option to add trip cancellation/interruption to this plan. This plan includes medical benefits plus emergency medical evacuation, as well as return of mortal remains and many other benefits. You may see full details, get quotes, or apply for this coverage at www.gninsurance.com/short-term-team.
TWEET-ABLE – A new short-term team insurance plan with trip cancellation coverage. [Tweet this]
7. PRE-EXISTING CONDITION MEDICA COVERAGE
We have on our corporate website a very large
database of articles (over 150) about international insurance. We call it our Library of International Medical and Health Insurance Information and Resources. The most popular article is dealing with pre-existing health conditions. We encourage you to read this article.
The good news is that we now have some short-term plans that provide total coverage for pre-existing conditions while you are traveling outside the USA. The one requirement is that you also have a valid U.S. domestic health insurance plan.
We also have several plans that provide coverage for pre-existing conditions in case of an unexpected recurrence of a medical condition. In fact, we have a whole section on our website devoted to Travel Insurance Pre-existing Condition Coverage for U.S. and International Travelers.
The good news is that you can now find exactly the right kind of travel and long-term overseas plan for your pre-existing medical condition.
TWEET-ABLE: International pre-existing condition medical insurance coverage. [Tweet this]
8. BOOK OF THE QUARTER: “THE RIVER OF DOUBT”
If you know much about Teddy Roosevelt and jungle exploration, you will love this book. Roosevelt had lost his second bid for the U.S. presidency. He was over 50 and was invited to speak in Latin America. Everyone knew he loved to explore. He teamed up with Col. Rondo, a very famous Brazilian explorer. They started at the source of the “River of Doubt,” so-called since no one knew where it ended. Over a period of weeks they sailed down this river. This happened in 1915 when the only way out was on this river. They made it, but only after the deaths of two of their large travel party. It is a great story, and will take you into the heart of the Brazilian wilderness in the early part of the last century. By the way, the river was named after Roosevelt.
9. GOOD NEIGHBOR INSURANCE BLOG: UP-TO-DATE INTERNATIONAL INSURANCE INFORMATION
We are very thankful for the great number of people visiting our blog and for spending lots of time on it. The average visitor has been spending 18 minutes.
Probably one reason is because of the many pertinent articles about insurance. Here is a list of some
of the most recent: (1) Update Medicare Supplement Information; June 1, 2010; (2) Basic Summary of the New Health Insurance Law, 2010 through 2014;(3) Swimming With the Big Guys? Then Think about Medical Evacuation; (4) Good Neighbor Insurance has Added ?Travel Guard? Gold Trip Cancellation Insurance; (5)Frequent Questions We Get Asked about the New Health Insurance Law, Part 1,etc.
If you want to keep up with international health insurance, please visit the GNI Blog.
TWEET-ABLE – Good Neighbor Insurance Blog – Up-to-date international insurance information. [Tweet this]
10. ENGLISH TEACHING & WORK OPPORTUNITIES OUTSIDE THE USA
We are in touch with many institutions outside the USA that are looking for English-speaking teachers. Most of these positions provide some reimbursement beside lodging and meals. If you would like further information please contact info@gninsurance.com.
Also, we have a NGO working in Afghanistan that is looking for a City Planner and also an Organizational Management Advisor.
11. INSURANCE PLANS CARRIED BY GNI
[1] Long-term health insurance for individuals working outside their home countries [2] Career/long-term plans for single women [3] Short-term plans from five days to three years for individuals [4] Group health for international agencies [5] Short-term team insurance [6] Term life insurance [7] Trip cancellation insurance [8] Flight insurance [9] Immigrant health insurance and insurance for students and visitors to the USA [10] Political and/or medical evacuation insurance [11] USA short-term health insurance including furlough insurance [12] War and terrorism insurance [13] Disability insurance [14] Individual and group insurance for most states in the USA [15] Kidnap and ransom insuranceTo access all of the options, please go to our corporate website: www.gninsurance.com.
12. WHO CAN BE COVERED & INFO FOR AN INSURANCE QUOTE
The following can be covered: Long-term and short-term workers, furloughing Americans in the USA, Americans returning permanently to the USA after an overseas assignment, foreign nationals working or studying in the USA, non-Americans working cross-culturally in another country other than the USA (e.g., Japanese working in Zaire, Indonesians studying in Australia), career overseas workers, and non-Americans who wish to purchase
“private health insurance” instead of using their government-run health care system.
If you want a quote on insurance, give us the age of each person to be insured, country of residence, citizenship, where you plan to go, and how long you plan to be there. State plainly all your outstanding chronic medical conditions.
We will also need your E-MAIL, TELEPHONE, and FAX numbers, as well as your postal addresses. If you want coverage while on furlough in the USA, give the state and zip code of your USA billing address and the type of work you do. If you are presently in the USA or plan to furlough shortly, PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR USA TELEPHONE NUMBER.
NOTE: We can also provide health insurance for Americans living in most of the 50 states in the United States.
13. INSURANCE BROCHURES FOR INDIVIDUALS AND/OR TEAMS
Are you organizing a short-term team for overseas travel? If you would like brochures on insurance for each team member, let us know how many you need. We can also provide “group” insurance for your short-term team so that they will not need to apply individually.
Please feel free to photocopy any brochures you receive from Good Neighbor Insurance. It is good to remember that
insurance companies are always producing new materials and applications. If your brochures are two years old, they are probably outdated. Please contact us for a new supply. If you want an electronic (e-mail) brochure and application, please let us know.
We mail hundreds of organizations updated brochures every year. Sometimes we mail quarterly, semi-annually, or annually. If you are getting more brochures than you need, or if you no longer need brochures, would you please let us know? We don’t want to be wasteful and/or waste your time with unneeded mail. Thanks!
14. LINKING TO THE GNI WEBSITE
Some organizations like to provide international insurance information for those traveling or living outside the USA. Here is information about Good Neighbor Insurance that you may want to make available on your web site. You are welcome to edit and/or shorten the suggested content.
LINK = www.gninsurance.com Content = GLOBAL HEALTH INSURANCE –Individual, group, career, short-term international health plans. Coverage for: short-term teams, furloughing missionaries, missionaries settling back into the USA, medical and political evacuation, terrorism coverage, non-Americans studying, visiting or working in the USA. Also term life plans. Visit www.gninsurance.com. E-mail: info@gninsurance.com; toll free: 866-636/9100; Fax: 480/813-9930.
Please note the www.gninsurance.com website has a whole section of medical tips for the international traveler , a fine glossary of insurance terms and a large library of articles that will help you understand international health insurance. And since GNI represents nine international health insurance companies, we offer a wide variety of insurance plans for the international travelers.
15. WHEN YOU CAN REACH US IN OUR OFFICE
Our office is located in Gilbert, Arizona, in what is called the “East Valley”– about 30 minutes east of downtown Phoenix. As to time, Arizona is on PST in the summer and MST in the winter. Thus, in the summer when the rest of the USA is on “Daylight Saving Time,” Arizona follows PST. We are in the office Monday through Friday by 7:00 a. m., and on most days an agent is available to talk to you until 6:00 p.m. If you miss us, please leave us a voice message or send us an e-mail. We prioritize responding to both–ASAP!!
Insurance Policy Information: International Travel Insurance with International Health Insurance
Epic snowstorms cancel flights: