UK expats are being urged to make sure their private medical cover provider will continue to insure them if they return home.
Many expats face healthcare problems because they have expat-only insurance that does not cover them if they decide to return to the UK, according to Carl Carter, managing director of insurer IMG Europe. In addition, it can find be difficult to re-register with the NHS due to rules in place designed to prevent people coming from abroad to take advantage of free healthcare.
Mr Carter, who was speaking as chairman of a recent meeting of insurance brokers in London, said: “Serious issues could occur where someone had major health problems overseas, but needed to return home to the UK, where they were uninsured by their expat carrier. They then might also have been uninsurable by a domestic insurer .”
However, some of the bigger insurers, such as BUPA and Axa will let people transfer to a domestic policy.