Starter Kit. Idea 349 of 500. Cluster 17
Health-insurance products for parents at home, bought by children abroad
The mechanism, from the book
Sri Lankans abroad have parents at home whom they cannot look after from Melbourne. They will pay, and the money stays.
The first step
Call the local offices of two insurers and ask, as a customer, what cover exists for a parent in their seventies and what it excludes; write down the prices and the gaps. Then ask 15 people abroad what they spent the last time a parent went into hospital, and whether they would pay a fixed yearly premium instead of emergency transfers. Their answers become the brief you take to an insurer as a sales partner.
- Who pays first
- A child abroad who has already paid one large hospital bill by emergency transfer and would rather pay a known premium every year.
- What leaves today
- Money from Sri Lankans abroad now arrives in panicked lump sums; an insurance product turns it into steady premiums held and invested at home.
Ask first
- Data Protection Authority. Ask what care is needed when holding parents' health details for insurers.
Check before you spend
That only a licensed insurer or broker sells the policy, what the cover excludes for older people, and how claims are paid when the buyer is abroad.
Find out these three numbers
- What did families abroad spend the last time a parent was in hospital?
- What yearly premium would they pay for fixed cover?
- Which exclusions do current policies for parents carry?
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.