Expats moving abroad should know what to expect with healthcare systems in their new home. Source: svilen001 (sxc.hu)According to the Global Mobility Study 2012, expat assignment destinations vary depending on where the company is based. The study, commissioned by the Santa Fe Group, is made up of responses from 1,119 companies across the globe and in all industry sectors.
For a company based in the Americas employees were commonly sent to China, the U.S and Singapore. For those based in the Asia-Pacific region top assignment destinations were China, Australia and Singapore. Companies who have headquarters in Europe, the Middle East and Africa sent most of their expat assignees to China, the U.S and the UK.
Scientists now believe there is a link between coffee drinking and living longer.New research has found evidence that drinking coffee every day can help you live longer. Whether you drink regular or decaffeinated doesn’t matter – all coffee drinkers in the study were found to live longer than non-drinkers.
After many studies suggesting coffee is bad for our health, this one, the largest of its kind, has proved otherwise. This research, of 400,000 people in the U.S, reveals coffee can lengthen your life. For years we have been told coffee is detrimental to health, possibly increasing the risk of heart disease.
More PMI providers are providing additional online "extras" to promote customer loyalty.Private medical insurers are rapidly realizing they need to do more than simply pay claims. Without extras on offer, healthy clients would wonder why they are paying so much for so little, and possibly reconsider renewing their insurance. With this in mind, health insurers are starting to provide a suite of policy “extras”.
Once insurers have the essentials right they are free to offer additional benefits in order to cement customer loyalty, David Pryor, senior executive director at Medicare International told Health Insurance Magazine.
Many expats are unaware of the rules for donating blood in their new homes.Fewer than 10% of people in the U.S and Canada donate blood, so organisations are always looking for ways to boost the numbers of donors. Around 30-40% of American Red Cross blood drives offer some incentive such as T-shirts, coupons or keychains. A recent study has shown that blood drive donations increased by 15-20% when incentives are thrown in. It is illegal in the U.S to receive money for blood donations used for direct transfusions.
In Australia, Brazil and Argentina it is illegal to receive any compensation, monetary or otherwise for all types of blood and tissue donation. However, in other countries it is common to receive non-monetary rewards, time off work is a common one. In Italy, blood donors receive the donation day as a paid holiday from work.
Many young people are still getting sunburnt and not applying sunscreen properly.Health warnings about the risks of sun damage don’t seem to be getting through to young adults, according to a recent survey. The report, released by the U.S government revealed that over half of under 30 year olds have had sunburn at least once in the past year.
The results are now roughly the same as a decade ago, despite repeated campaigns to warn against the dangers of sunburn. The survey also found women in their 20s are visiting tanning salons twice a month on average.
In a recent study, the U.S was found to spend significantly more on healthcare yet the quality wasn't noticeably better.According to a new study, the United States spends more on healthcare than 12 other industrialized countries. In spite of this, the quality is not obviously higher than those countries who spend less. In the U.S spending is linked to a higher price for treatment and greater use of medical technology, not hospital stays or doctor visits.
The report, entitled Explaining High Health Care Spending in the United States: An International Comparison of Supply, Utilization, Prices, and Quality was published by The Commonwealth Fund. It found the U.S spent nearly $8,000 per person in 2009 on healthcare services. Other countries in the study spent one-third (Japan and New Zealand) and two-thirds (Norway and Switzerland) as much.
Source: WikipediaUniversal healthcare or universal coverage has featured heavily in the news lately. There has been much discussion about “Obamacare” and the introduction in 2014 of a universal healthcare system in the U.S.
So if you’re moving abroad what do you know about the healthcare system in your destination? There is a form of universal healthcare in 32 of the 33 developed nations (with the U.S being the exception). South Africa, Mexico, India, Venezuela and Thailand are in the process of implementing a universal healthcare system.
A new scale has been developed to measure potential addiction to Facebook - something expats will be exposed to.Scientists in Norway have developed an instrument to measure Facebook addiction. With more people connecting online there is a new trend towards social media addiction. Expats are often amongst the earliest and most avid users of online communication tools as they keep in touch with family around the world.
The study, the first of its kind, has come up with a scale to measure a person’s addiction to Facebook. The Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale is based on six criteria, where all items are scored on the following scale: (1) Very rarely, (2) Rarely, (3) Sometimes, (4) Often, and (5) Very often.
The retired will be made to pay for the medication in new cost saving measures launched in Spain.With Spain’s economy recently slipping back into a recession. As part of new cost saving measures pensioners are being asked to start paying for their prescriptions. The plan aims to save €3,700 million in healthcare.
Retired and elderly expatriates will be required to pay 10% of the cost of their medicine. Those receiving the smallest pensions will be exempt. Payments will be capped at €8 a month for those making less than €18,000 a year, which is most pensioners. On average, the Government estimates, pensioners will be paying €2-3 a month for drugs.
Many insurers won't cover you if you apply for insurance after you have developed a serious condition.The health insurance market can be a jungle with many traps and dangers in the form of small print and exclusion clauses. Finding the right health insurance is not an easy task and one that should not be undertaken lightly.
Chief Executive of Abacare Group Limited, Patrick Marie Herbet, has come across many cases where people have paid into a health insurance scheme all their life only to find out that they are not covered once they reach 65 years old (a time you are more likely to need health insurance). Or after a serious illness the insurer refuses to renew their cover.
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