Health cover when your life is in two countries
What lapses while you are away, why travel insurance and health cover are not the same thing, and the questions to settle before a long stay in either direction.
People plan the flights and the work and leave health cover until the week before. It is the one thing that is expensive to get wrong and free to think about early.
Two different things that sound the same
Health cover pays for your ongoing care in the country you live in. Travel insurance covers you while you are away, usually for a limited period, usually excluding anything you already had.
You can easily end up with neither: away long enough that the travel policy has run out, and away long enough that the cover at home has lapsed.
What a long absence can do to cover at home
A long stay overseas can affect eligibility, cost or continuity of cover, and the rules differ by country, by visa and by how long you are away. Services Australia publishes how Medicare works for people who go overseas, including reciprocal arrangements with some countries.
The questions to settle before a long stay:
- How long can I be away before my cover is affected?
- Does private cover keep charging while I am away, and is it suspended or lost?
- Is there any reciprocal arrangement with the country I am going to?
- What do I need to do, and when, to restart cover when I come back?
Ask the body that actually administers your cover, not a forum, because the answer depends on your own status.
Travel insurance, read properly
- Does it cover conditions you already have, and did you declare them?
- What is the longest single trip it covers?
- Does it cover the work you are going to do, particularly farm or manual work?
- Does it cover getting you home if something serious happens?
The practical things
Carry a written list of your medicines with their generic names, since brand names differ between countries. Take enough to cover the gap, and check what you are allowed to bring in. Ask your doctor for a short summary of your history to carry. Know the emergency number for where you are going, and where the nearest hospital is, before you need either.
While you are home
A long stay is the chance to deal with the dental work, the eye test and the check up you have been putting off, and often at a cost that makes the timing worth planning. Put it in the Roots plan next to the dates rather than leaving it to the last fortnight.