The director of ALC Global Health Insurance said that as more people emigrated or moved overseas for their jobs, it was important they did not neglect to put proper health protection policies in place.
Mr Apps said: “For many people working and living abroad, while the perks of this global mobility are enticing, they run the risk of falling ill or having accidents in countries where decent healthcare can be prohibitively expensive.
“Governments are putting pressure on local healthcare providers to charge foreigners for using their services, especially as many people from the UK have been going to places such as Russia and South Africa for dental or plastic surgery.”
He said many financial advisers were unaware of the sheer scale of the costs and bureaucratic loopholes that Britons and their families could face if they did not have appropriate health insurance in place.
For example, it could cost up to US$10,000 (£5,900) in Hong Kong just to give birth, while only a handful of countries screen for clean blood – meaning 60 per cent of all blood in the world is not screened for hepatitis or Aids viruses.
Mr Apps added: “A decent protection plan, which covers blood transfusions through partnerships with an organisation such as the Blood Foundation, would ensure that clients do not go into a hospital overseas after having had an accident, and come out with something worse.”
His comments came a week after Chris Morgan, marketing director of London-based insurance broker Unusual Risks, said he was “shocked” to discover that only 25 per cent of UK insurance companies offer life insurance to British expats.
Adviser view
Andrew Oliver, co-director of Kent-based Andrew Oliver & Co, said he had a recent case of a couple that cancelled a life insurance policy last year to save money to emigrate, only to discover when taking requisite tests that one of them had a form of blood cancer.
He said: “I wonder how much of the protection gap is a result of the demise of the home-service industry, when the ‘man from wherever’ called every week to collect insurance premiums.
“That person was there regularly, in touch with people and their families and situations. Life assurance used to be sold. If anything has replaced the home-service distribution channel, it is not as efficient in reaching the people in the same way.”
