Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Times are tough all over

In places like England and Hong Kong (to name but two), private insurance is available (indeed, mandatory) for any number of folks, including ex-pats and the like. And just like here, the cost of care continues to increase, even (especially?) in places with "Universal" (ie government-run) health care schemes.

But it's the cost of these medical insurance plans that caught my attention in this article at LifeHealthPro:

"The cost of international private medical insurance is climbing globally, with an inflation rate of 9.2 percent reported for 2016."

In fact, the author's company ("a global insurance advisor") recently concluded a study of almost 100 different countries to see if they could ascertain the primary factors driving these increases. And they seem to have found them:

"[A]n increase in the demand for international quality private care, increases in the cost of health care, new regulations, and fraud."

Regular IB readers will remain nonplussed at this revelation, but it's still interesting. And note, too, that this is different than medical tourism, which involves leaving one's home country specifically for a particular health issue.

The more you know...
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