International Health Insurance Ratings

Planning an extended trip or stay abroad? Domestic health insurance will not cover your needs as a foreign traveler or expatriate. To ensure that you can access quality medical care from foreign health-care providers during your time abroad, get an international health policy. To maximize the chances that the insurer will be capable of paying under the policy, make sure you obtain it from a highly-rated insurance company.

Rating System

• The rating agencies use differing letter scales to assign relative strength ratings. Standard & Poor's uses AAA for its top rating, descending to AA to A to BBB, where the "secure" category ends. Anything below that S&P considers to be "vulnerable," starting with the BB rating down through CCC to C, which designates a "questionable ability to meet obligations." A.M. Best, probably the foremost health-insurance rater, uses A++ and A+, followed by A and A- "excellent," B++ and B+ "good," for its secure category. Best rates "vulnerable" insurers B and B-, on down through C++ to C, and ends its scale with D, "poor ability to meet obligations."

Rating Agencies

• A.M. Best, Fitch and Standard & Poor's rate health insurers. They let you look up individual insurers' ratings on their respective websites, where you can see exactly how each company defines the individual ratings. You will probably encounter A.M. Best's ratings cited most often on insurance comparison or brokers' sites.

Ratings Criteria

• The individual letter ratings summarize the rating agencies' opinions about an insurer's financial strength and its ability to meet ongoing obligations to policyholders. Analysts derive the rating following an in-depth evaluation of a company's capital and reserves, operating performance and business profile, by comparing a series of indicators with proprietary industry benchmarks. They re-evaluate the insurers and their ratings continually for changes throughout the course of a year.

Why Rate Insurers?

• The bigger they are ...

  Third parties interested in an insurer's financial strength and ability to continue in business include investors, financiers, regulators and, of course, policyholders. Insurer ratings let you make informed choices when buying an international health policy. For peace of mind, it's important not only to choose the policy with the right coverages, but also one from a strong provider with staying power, such as the A-rated Lloyds of London, for example,

How to Use the Ratings

• Check any health insurer rating on the rating agencies' respective websites while you are prospecting for a policy. It might be simpler to start your search on an insurance comparison or international health insurance broker website. Typically, these will only quote policies underwritten by insurers rated A- or better. This way, you can concentrate on finding the insurance policies that offer you the best values instead of having to dig extensively into issuer quality.