Expat health insurers trend toward full medical underwriting

Morgan Price is the latest expat health insurance provider to offer full medical underwriting procedures, noted Globalsurance in a recent post. Medical underwriting is the process by which insurers use applicants’ medical information to evaluate their eligibility for health or life insurance. Usually the most important factor health insurance firms consider in underwriting is pre-existing conditions.

The opposite of an underwritten policy is one with a moratorium. Under these policies coverage is approved immediately but claims are only paid following more detailed investigations. Furthermore, moratorium policies allow insurers to deny payment for some claims (particularly those related to pre-existing conditions) outright.

Jon Carpenter, Managing Director of Morgan Price, said “traditionally individual international business has been sold via the moratorium route as it is an immediate sell, but increasingly this is causing issues at the back end where customers expect fast claims turnarounds and payments. If a moratorium policy is being administered properly, then claims stage investigation is common, and this inevitably delays processing and payments while you track back through an expatriate’s medical history.”

DKV Globality, Bupa International and Aviva also provide options for full medical underwriting.

The trend toward full medical underwriting is a significant one for both expats and the international health industry. Historically insurers have been reluctant to cover pre-existing conditions, leaving many expats in the lurch when it comes to comprehensive health insurance cover. Offering full medical underwriting is another move bringing practices in the expat health insurance industry in line with its domestic counterpart. This is a product not only of rising costs but also growing demand. And with medical inflation projected to rise by double-digits in 2011, this trend isn’t likely to let up any time soon.