If you are applying for a Russian visa, you will need to demonstrate that you have some form of health insurance, before you enter the country. Once on the ground, you will be eligible to access public healthcare, as long as you are making contributions into the Russian social security system.However, as we shall see below, most expats opt for private health insurance with an international provider. If this is something that you’d like to do, you will naturally want to access the most cost effective policies, and we will look at some of your options below.
Personalising your health insurance cover
You will be able to access the state health insurance system, обязательное медицинское страхование (OMI/OMC), as an expat employed in Russia. If you are simply visiting the country, however, you will have to pay out of pocket or seek emergency treatment, unless you have private international coverage.
OMI is limited. It often applies to a specific hospital and is non-transferable. Thus, many Russians and most expats opt for either comprehensive private cover or top-up cover to deal with anything beyond basic treatment. Check with your employer to see whether they offer voluntary health insurance (VHI) or добровольное медицинское страхование (ДМС), which acts as a supplement to the basic policy. Russian local insurance is geared towards the corporate sector; the bulk of its market consists of group policies purchased by employers.
Russia has a reputation for a low standard of healthcare, falling significantly behind European nations and most Eastern European states. You are likely to find the best quality of healthcare in Moscow and other large cities, while there is often very limited provision in rural and more remote areas.
Your other option is to pay out-of-pocket expenses in the private sector. Remember, however, that costs can escalate rapidly if you have a chronic condition or need to see a specialist.
It is advisable to take out medical evacuation insurance as part of your policy during your stay in Russia.
Selectable options
Check the small print of any private health insurance policy to see whether it covers treatments that you may want to access, such as specialist surgical treatment or more advanced dental care, like crowns or dental implants.
Remember to check whether your potential policy covers pre-existing conditions; the definition of a pre-existing condition will vary between insurers. Usually, the term applies to any conditions that present symptoms or for which you’ve been treated in the last five years. This normally includes any conditions you were diagnosed with over five years ago, but some insurers have different time limits on when the diagnosis must have been given.
You may want to check whether your policy has a ‘hospitalisation’ clause covering you for occasional hospital visits. You may need to discuss this directly with your insurer. You may also wish to check whether there is a medical evacuation clause.
Take a good look at your potential policy for any cover relating to healthcare that does not apply to you. Some policies have provision for maternity care, for instance, and if you are not intending to become pregnant (or would prefer to rely on the cover provided by the Russian maternity system), then you may wish to reduce your policy costs by having such options removed.
Cost sharing
You may also be able to reduce the cost of your premium through cost sharing. This is where you and your insurer share the costs of any treatment. You will pay up to an agreed limit, and your provider will cover the rest. Different insurers will have different ways of arranging cost sharing.
Co-pay: where you pay a fixed sum for your treatment and your insurer covers the rest. For instance, if the total cost of your treatment is €85, and your co-pay amount is set at €40, then you will pay €40 and your insurer will pay €45.
Co-insurance: where you pay a fixed percentage of the total cost and your insurer covers the rest. For instance, if your co-insurance is set at 20%, you will pay 20% of €85 and your insurer will cover the remaining 80%.
Deductibles: where you pay the entire amount allowed for all services provided until the deductible is met. For instance, if your policy has a €1,000 annual deductible, you would pay €85 for each visit to your GP for 11 visits (€1000/€85 = 11.8), after which your insurance would pay out to the doctor directly.
You may also need to take a look at whether there is an out-of-pocket maximum that you would be expected to pay after your deductible has been met.
Let’s say that your plan above, with a €1000 deductible, also has a co-insurance option of 20% and an out-of-pocket maximum of €1500. You will thus pay €85 for 11 visits to the doctor under your deductible until it is met. You will then pay €17 for each visit as your 20% coinsurance, until you reach the co-insurance ceiling of €500 (€1,500 minus the deductible of €1,000), or about 29 more visits (€500/€17 = 29.4). At that point (40 total visits in a year), you would pay nothing more for the remainder of the plan year.
It’s worth doing the maths, especially if you don’t think that you’ll need to make more than a couple of visits to your GP in any one policy period. For example, if you just want dental check-ups with an occasional filling, it might be worth working out whether one or two out-of-pocket costs might be cheaper than full dental cover.
As so many variables have an effect on the cost of international private medical insurance it becomes very difficult to give accurate estimates without knowing the full details of the coverage required. However, as a very rough guide, using a standard profile of a 40 year old British male with no deductibles, no co-insurance, a middle tier plan/product, all modules included and worldwide coverage excluding the US, a ballpark price of around £4,000/$5,000 might be expected. Were coverage to be expanded to include the US then the premium could increase to almost double that amount.