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Nearly all respondents (98%) currently provide private medical insurance for their globally mobile work force compared with only 57% in 2005. Medical benefits and the quality and standards of medical health care vary significantly from country to country, so the main challenge for companies is to provide expatriates with a broadly equitable system of health care while managing costs. Other factors that may be driving uptake of international medical plans include an increase in local health insurance compliance and also the increasing demand by employees for medical benefits to be in place prior to the commencement of the assignment.According to Price, an international medical plan provides equality among expatriates and reduces administration effort and time resource constraints. But challenges remain, particularly around costs. Fifty-three percent of respondents have experienced increases of 6% or more in their international medical plan premiums at their last renewal. Twenty percent of companies have seen their premium increases by between 11% and 15%. The survey indicates traditional cost-containment options remain popular, with a large proportion of respondents adopting the use of cost-sharing approaches such as employee deductibles (up 8% from 2008/2009), co-insurance and annual benefits limits. Mercer’s 2011/2012 Benefits Survey for Expatriates and Internationally Mobile Employees provides an overview of expatriate policies within large multinational companies. It covers 288 multinational firms worldwide that, all together, have 119,000 expatriates (up from 94,000 in the 2008/2009 survey).
Nearly all respondents (98%) currently provide private medical insurance for their globally mobile work force compared with only 57% in 2005. Medical benefits and the quality and standards of medical health care vary significantly from country to country, so the main challenge for companies is to provide expatriates with a broadly equitable system of health care while managing costs. Other factors that may be driving uptake of international medical plans include an increase in local health insurance compliance and also the increasing demand by employees for medical benefits to be in place prior to the commencement of the assignment.According to Price, an international medical plan provides equality among expatriates and reduces administration effort and time resource constraints. But challenges remain, particularly around costs. Fifty-three percent of respondents have experienced increases of 6% or more in their international medical plan premiums at their last renewal. Twenty percent of companies have seen their premium increases by between 11% and 15%.
The survey indicates traditional cost-containment options remain popular, with a large proportion of respondents adopting the use of cost-sharing approaches such as employee deductibles (up 8% from 2008/2009), co-insurance and annual benefits limits.
Rebecca Mooreeditors@plansponsor.com