Local (In-Country) Medical Insurance Policies
Paid hospital insurance plans and travel insurance can make sense under certain circumstances, as I’ve explained. However, if you plan to live or retire overseas, either full- or part-time, and certainly if you plan to travel regularly, your two top options are an in-country medical insurance policy or an international medical insurance policy.
A local medical insurance policy may be ideal for you if you have no pre-existing conditions and are younger than 63. These insurance providers typically are connected with hospital networks and doctors throughout the country, meaning you are not limited to one health care facility. Typically, your coverage follows you anywhere you might travel in the country. It does not, however (and this is the critical thing to understand), follow you outside that country.
Again, if you’ll be traveling internationally on a regular basis or spending part of each year somewhere else, an in-country policy probably doesn’t make sense for you. However, if you plan to be based in one country most of the time, a local medical insurance policy can be less expensive (in some cases, much less expensive) than a comparable international medical insurance policy.
On the other hand, the coverage is usually more basic. And, as I’ve explained, the cut-off age for coverage can be a serious limitation. For instance, in Panama, most local insurance companies will not enter into a new policy agreement if you are over the age of 63. As well, local insurance companies have smaller client bases than big international insurance agencies, so they are much more affected by the claims you make. If they believe you are costing them too much money, they could terminate their contract with you. Local insurance companies may be ideal if you are moving to a country where medical care is inexpensive. If you need minor treatment, and it is affordable, you can choose to pay out of pocket rather than making a claim to your local insurance company, saving that for catastrophic coverage only.
When shopping in-country insurance providers, don’t be confused by their names. A number of countries, for example, have franchises of well-known U.S. insurance companies, such as Blue Cross and Blue Shield (which has branches in 170 countries). You must understand, however, that these international branches of Blue Cross and Blue Shield are franchises only. Foreign policies are not the same as the coverage you may know from the United States or Canada. The international franchises work with locally-owned insurance companies. Your Blue Cross and Blue Shield policy from the United States or Canada generally will not follow you if you move overseas.