This condition is one of the most concerns to insurers. Chronic Condition is a disease, illness or injury that has no known cure and/or is likely to continue. Examples are diabetes, heart disease and asthma.
Chronic conditions are very important as it would require a lifetime of medication and treatment and are therefore very expensive. Once somebody has a condition at younger age it is very difficult to cover it later since it will then be deemed a pre-existing condition.
International Health insurers usually apply limitation or restrictions for the treatment of a chronic condition and in some cases the plan may not cover chronic conditions at all.
Generally limitations are:
• Acute Phases only; the condition ‘flares up’ or requires special treatment over a short period of time
• Lifetime Limit; the insurer set up a limit for a life time. If the condition requires ongoing treatment, the treatment cost may exceed the limit.
• Annual Limit; the limit is applied to expenses during the year.
Plans which include full cover of chronic conditions are more expensive than those which do not. Older age are often diagnosed with Chronic Condition comparing to young people.
Emergency evacuation
The International Health Insurance usually covers the evacuation expenses in the event of the insured person is in critical or life threatening condition and the proper medical treatment is not available locally. The insurer normally evacuates to the nearest hospital where adequate facility to treat the insured person is available.
Emergency Medical Evacuation is extremely important if you are living in underdeveloped country since the cost for helicopters, air ambulances, flights and in-transit medical care can add up to enormous amounts of money. However if the insured person live in Singapore or Hong Kong, it is probably not necessary to have this benefit.
All Emergency Medical Evacuation has to be agreed by the insurer’s medical consultant and the treating doctor. The Insured person can not simply ask to be evacuated to a different hospital; it has to be medically necessary.
Many International Health Insurance plans also cover transportation expenses for one person to accompany the insured patient. A return journey economy class for both parties will normally also be included in the cover.