Family guide
Children’s health cover abroad: what’s specific
A child isn’t insured like an adult: the follow-up they need is different, some policies apply more favourable rules to them, and their risk assessment at underwriting has nothing to do with an adult’s after decades of life. But none of this is automatic: each point needs to be checked policy by policy.
Routine paediatric follow-up and vaccinations
A child doesn’t see a doctor for the same reasons as an adult: routine growth check-ups, vaccinations on the immunisation schedule, systematic paediatric screenings. These follow-up items, largely preventive rather than curative, aren’t necessarily handled the same way as an adult’s routine care in an international health insurance policy: how they’re covered (dedicated cap, reimbursement percentage, items covered) needs to be checked item by item, before assuming a child’s routine follow-up is automatically covered on the same basis as a standard consultation.
Excess: often reduced for a minor, never a given
Many policies apply a reduced, or even zero, excess for children attached as dependants — a common way of lowering out-of-pocket costs on the items children see most often (paediatrics, ENT). But the age threshold used to qualify a “child” or a “minor” under the policy, and the size of the reduction, vary from one insurer to another: this condition is set out in each policy’s terms and conditions, it’s never assumed.
A child’s medical questionnaire: generally simplified, never dropped
A child with no medical history generally answers a medical questionnaire shorter than an adult’s, for lack of history to declare. But the questionnaire itself doesn’t disappear: a child being treated for a specific condition, an allergy, or an ongoing treatment must have this information declared with the same rigour as an adult, under the same consequences for omission — up to voiding their cover for intentional misrepresentation.
Each child must be declared individually
A “family plan” isn’t a package that automatically covers any child present in the household: each child must be named on the policy, with their own effective date and their own medical questionnaire, to actually be covered. A child simply mentioned verbally to the insurer, or assumed to be “included” because their parents are insured, has no cover until they’ve been formally added to the policy.
This rule also applies to a child joining the household mid-policy — born abroad, adopted, or arriving after the initial policy was taken out: adding them is a step in its own right with the insurer, not something that happens by itself.
Check the cover for each child in the household, one by one: Expat family insurance
Written by Expavy