Other Insurance you may want or need in Austria

International Private or Expatriate Medical Insurance Having a good insurance for medical expenses is very importantant. At home, people usually have either a social or a private medical insurance. These medical insurances often offer limited coverage outside the home country in terms of duration and type of cover. Private medical insurances for expatriates are generally not restricted by these limitiations, and have in common, that they offer a number of special services. In another country, medical services are different from your home country. Therefore, it is important that you have a contact number for a helpline, where you can make enquiries about the location and the quality of certain medical services before your departure. Expatriate insurers should also have access to a vast network of good hospitals and qualified physicians for treatment of your ailment or disease. In addition, expatriate medical insurances usually have the special feature that they offer elective home country treatment. That means that you can choose whether you want to be treated in your home country or your country of residence (i.e. Austria), and in both cases, medical expenses are reimbursed. In case of a critical medical condition, the expatriate insurer makes arrangements for medically necessary evacuation and / or repatriation, and often they reimburse extra travelling and accomodation expenses, which arise because of an emergency in your home country such as critical illness or death of a family member. Many international private medical insurances have a number of general exclusions. Practically all expatriate insurances exclude fertility promoting treatment and cosmetic surgery, but for example, also pre-existing conditions. Please note that pregnancy counts as a pre-existing condition for most insurers. How an insurer approaches chronic conditions, depends on the insurer. Therefore, it is advisable that you check with the potential insurer what is covered for a certain country, but especially what is not covered in that country. It is very important to make sure that your family members can be insured with you on the same policy, if your family accompanies you to your new country of residence. Or can your family members who stay behind in the home country for the whole or part of the period, be insured together with you? Another consideration when choosing a medical insurance for expats, concerns the question whether you can continue your membership of a corporate insurance plan as an individual member. Should you stay abroad longer than originally intended, can you continue your insurance? And what happens if, unfortunately, you and your company should say goodbye to each other? Can you continue the insurance? And what are the continuation options, if you return to your home country? Finally, the service element plays an important role. How does the insurer deal with your claims for reimbursement? The least you may expect that assistance is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. In case of a hospitalisation, you should be able to call the assistance helpline in order to arrange a medical guarantee for treatment, so that you do not meet any unexpected medical expenses. If your personal circumstances change, you should have the possibility to change your policy. How flexible the insurer deals with this kind of changes, depends on the insurance company. Similar considerations apply to the facility to pay installments. Travel insurance You may wonder to what extent you need travel insurance. Many medical insurances for expatriates are not designed to cover a specific country, but cover one or more areas. If you travel only within this area, it is not necessary to take out an additional travel insurance policy for cover of emergency medical evacuation or emergency medical expenses. If you travel outside the area of cover, you do need an additional travel insurance policy. If you would like to insure theft or loss of luggage, you should always take out a travel insurance policy. You have two options for travel insurance: one-trip travel insurance or continuous travel insurance. Generally speaking, expatriates travel more than local residents, and therefore, the continuous travel option may be interesting for you. Household Contents As soon as you leave your home country and settle in your new country of residence, your insurance for household contents may be cancelled automatically. Therefore, it is necessary to carefully check the policy conditions of your household contents insurance. You can insure your household contents in the country of residence. However, you can also decide to include the household contents insurance in your expatriate insurance package. Your advantage is that the policy conditions are in English. A basic household contents insurance covers for risks such as fire, explosion, lightning, damage as a result of water, steam and rain, theft and vandalism. Special exclusions concern flooding, earthquakes, vulcanic eruptions and damage as a result of nuclear reactions. In some countries, for example Austria, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxemburg and Switzerland, tenants are liable for damage to their rented appartment/house by law. The right expatriate insurer can provide you with optional tenant liability insurance. The transport of the household contents can generally also be insured optionally. When you compare the different household contents insurances, you will notice that some insurances cover your belongings on the basis of new value and others on the basis of market value. When the cover is based on new value, the amount you are covered for, is based on what you should pay  to buy the same belongings of the same kind and quality as the ones you have lost. Cover on the basis of market value includes an adjustment based on age, wear and tear. Most insurances indemnify on the basis of new value. However, limitations and/or special conditions often apply for antique or rare items such as special collections, for example. With household contents insurances, it is very important that your household contents are valued correctly. If the real value of your belongings exceeds the insured value, it results in underinsurance of your belongings. If goods are underinsured and a claim is made, your belongings will not be covered in full, but only proportionately. An example with numbers: you insure your household contents up to a value of 20,000 euros, but the real value amounts to 25,000 euros. Unfortunately, they have stolen your personal computer with a value of 2,500 euros. As the household contents are underinsured for 20 percent, the reimbursement will be 20 percent lower than the real value, and the insurer will reimburse 2,000 euros for the personal computer. Personal Liability Liability insurance provides you with cover for damage that you cause to others. The same applies here as with household contents insurance. You can insure personal liability in the country of residence. However, you can also decide to include personal liability insurance in your expatriate insurance package. Your advantage is that the policy conditions are in English. Personal Accident The consequences of an accident can be serious and so may be the financial consequences. Accident insurance covers any type of accident, and pays out a lump sum in case of permanent disability or death. This may lessen the financial loss for the insured him/herself or the relatives left behind. Pet Insurance Dog Liability Insurance (Hundehaftpflichtversicherung) This coverage is a good idea if you have a dog. It covers you if your dog bites someone or damages property.

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