Aetna international health insurance review

About Aetna International

Aetna International is the global business of Aetna, a United States company. Aetna International has been around for more than 50 years and provides health benefits, including international health insurance, to more than 800,000 members worldwide. There are more than 1,000 Aetna International employees around the world, including in Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and the United States.

Eligibility

Age

Aetna’s international health insurance plans have different age eligibility terms depending on the plan you get. Aetna offers two types of plans: Mobile Healthcare Plan (MHP) and Aetna Pioneer. You must be between 18 and 65 to purchase a MHP plan. You must be between 18 and 79 to purchase an Aetna Pioneer plan.

Country of residence

If you live in the United States or Bermuda at the time of enrollment or during any period of coverage, then you’re not eligible for an Aetna International plan.

Pre-existing conditions

You can purchase an Aetna International plan if you have a pre-existing condition, but your condition will be excluded from coverage, unless specifically included in your plan.

Aetna international health insurance plan options

Aetna International offers two types of plans depending on whether you’re a citizen of a country in the Americas and your age. If you’re a citizen of a country in the Americas (North, Central, and South America) and you’re under 65 years old, Aetna International offers its Mobile Healthcare Plan (MHP). Otherwise, you can choose from one of Aetna International’s Aetna Pioneer℠ plans.

Mobile Healthcare Plan (MHP)

Aetna International’s Mobile Healthcare Plan (MHP) is for citizens of countries in the Americas and under 65 years old. Aetna’s MHP includes 2 plans you can choose from:

• MHP Classic
• MHP Exclusive

Aetna Pioneer℠ plans

The Aetna Pioneer℠ plans are for citizens of countries outside of the Americas or those between 65 and 79 years old. There are 5 Aetna Pioneer plans you can choose from:

• Aetna Pioneer℠ 1750
• Aetna Pioneer℠ 2500
• Aetna Pioneer℠ 4000
• Aetna Pioneer℠ 5000
• Aetna Pioneer℠ 5000+

Area of coverage

Aetna’s international health insurance plans include coverage worldwide.

COVID-19 coverage

Aetna International health insurance plans cover COVID-19, but what’s covered, how much you have to pay out of pocket, etc. depend on the plan you have. For example, if you’re admitted to a hospital due to COVID-19, your hospital stay is covered, but your annual benefit limit and deductible still applies. Diagnostic testing, as referred by a medical physician in an approved medical facility, is covered fully. Plus, if you're an Aetna International policyholder in Singapore and your finances have been affected by COVID-19, you may apply for temporary premium payment relief.

Plan coverage

Below are some highlights of what’s included in Aetna’s international health insurance plans. For the full list of benefits, see the MHP Classic schedule of benefits or the MHP Exclusive schedule of benefits.

Mobile Healthcare Plan (MHP) coverage

Note: Aetna International’s MHP plans are only available to citizens of a country in the Americas and those under 65. If this doesn’t apply to you, skip this section and scroll to the “Aetna Pioneer plan coverage” section right below. Also, while we aim to keep our reviews updated, we cannot guarantee that the coverage information here is the latest. Refer to Aetna’s site for the latest information.

Benefit	MHP Classic	MHP Exclusive
Annual benefit limit per person per coverage period	$4 million	$4 million
Basic wellness and preventive care benefits (including routine checkups)	Included	Included
Coverage for maternity and pregnancy complications	Included	Included
Coverage for accidental teeth damage	Included	Included
Emergency assistance services	Included	Included
Enhanced pregnancy and childbirth benefits	Not included	Included
Routine and restorative dental care coverage	Not included	Included
Enhanced wellness and preventive care benefits	Not included	Included

Aetna Pioneer plan coverage

Below are highlights of the Aetna Pioneer plans. These plans are only available to those that are citizens of countries outside of the Americas or between 65 and 79. If this doesn’t apply to you, see the “Mobile Healthcare Plan (MHP) coverage” section above. For more details on the benefits covered by Aetna Pioneer plans, visit Aetna International’s site.

Aetna Pioneer plan benefit limits

Plan	Benefit Limit
Aetna Pioneer℠ 1750	$1,750,000
Aetna Pioneer℠ 2500	$2,500,000
Aetna Pioneer℠ 4000	$4,000,000
Aetna Pioneer℠ 5000	$5,000,000
Aetna Pioneer℠ 5000+	$5,000,000

Note: while we aim to keep our reviews updated, we cannot guarantee that the benefit information here is the latest. Refer to Aetna International’s site for the latest information. Also, overall plan benefit limits still apply for each of the benefits below. The “Additional Limits” refer to any other limits that apply.

Covered Benefit	Included with Which Plan	Additional Limits
Inpatient and daycare treatment	All	None
Outpatient post-hospitalization treatment (up to 90 days)	All	None
Outpatient surgical procedures	All	None
Outpatient consultations, treatments, and tests including MRI	All except Aetna Pioneer℠ 1750	Aetna Pioneer℠ 2500: $5,000 Aetna Pioneer℠ 4000: $15,000 Aetna Pioneer℠ 5000: None Aetna Pioneer℠ 5000+: None
Local ambulance	All	None
Cancer care	All	None
Organ transplants	All	None
Routine health checks	All except Aetna Pioneer℠ 1750 & Aetna Pioneer℠ 2500	Aetna Pioneer℠ 4000: $500 Aetna Pioneer℠ 5000: $1,000 Aetna Pioneer℠ 5000+: $1,000
Sight and hearing examination	Aetna Pioneer℠ 5000 & Aetna Pioneer℠ 5000+ only	$250
Non-emergency medical evacuation	All	$2,000

Exclusions

Health insurance plans generally have treatments, expenses, and procedures that aren’t covered. Below are some of the conditions and situations that Aetna International does not cover. You can get the full list in Aetna’s MHP Member Handbook and Aetna Pioneer Handbook.

• Experimental treatment or drug therapy
• Cosmetic treatments (e.g. plastic surgery)
• Weight loss treatments
• Drug addiction or alcoholism treatment
• Self-inflicted injuries
• Infertility treatment
• Injuries caused by professional sports (e.g. skiing or snowboarding off-piste)

Aetna international health insurance costs

Aetna International offers many plan customization options that affect your costs. Some of the factors that affect your costs are the country of coverage, which plan you get, your age, and the deductible amount.

Mobile Healthcare Plan (MHP) plan costs

MHP deductible options

A deductible is the amount you must pay out of pocket before the insurance company will pay out for claims covered by your plan. Aetna International offers 6 deductible options for its Mobile Healthcare Plan. The higher the deductible amount, the lower your premiums. The deductible options include:

• $0
• $500
• $1,000
• $2,500
• $5,000
• $10,000

MHP coinsurance

A coinsurance amount is the percentage of the total expenses that the insurance company pays, with the remainder that the enrolled person must pay for each and every medical charge. For example, an 80% coinsurance for a medical charge means that the insurance company pays 80% and you pay 20% of the costs. The coinsurance is in addition to deductible payments and deductible payments do not contribute to the coinsurance limit.

The MHP Classic plan has a coinsurance of 80% paid by Aetna (60% if you’re getting treatment in the U.S., but using a provider outside of the Aetna U.S. network). The MHP Classic plan also has a coinsurance limit of $1,000 per coverage period, which means that once you’ve paid up to $1,000 for coinsurance, then Aetna pays 100% of the costs.

The MHP Exclusive plan does not have a coinsurance on most benefits. There is an 80% coinsurance with a limit of $1,000 for treatments in the U.S., but outside of the U.S. network of providers. For the full list of benefits and coinsurance percentage, see the MHP Classic schedule of benefits and the MHP Exclusive schedule of benefits.

Benefit	MHP Classic	MHP Exclusive
Inpatient and day patient care	80%	100%
Oncology, MRIs and CT scans	80%*	100%*
Routine dental	Not covered	75% (Up to $1,500)
Emergency dental	80%*	100%*
Evacuation and repatriation	80%*	100%*
Outpatient care	80%*	100%*
Preventive care (including routine checkups)	80%*	100%*

*This amount is 60% for the MHP Classic plan and 80% for the MHP Exclusive plan if you’re getting benefits from an out-of-network provider within the U.S.

MHP monthly premium costs

Below are some estimated premium costs for Aetna International’s MHP plans.

For the MHP plans, we pulled quotes for 4 ages (18, 25, 35, 64) and for a United States citizen who’ll be living in Portugal with no dependents. (As Aetna’s MHP are for those between 18 and 65, if you’re 65 or older, Aetna will provide quotes for its Aetna Pioneer plans instead, which anyone up to 79 is qualified for. See below for Aetna Pioneer plan premium costs.) We also ran quotes for the extremes of deductible amounts, meaning we looked at the case of $0 deductible and the case of maximum deductible of $10,000. This way you can see the range of premium costs.

Aetna offers a couple of discounts on premiums. You can get a 20% discount on new multi-member policies. You can also get a discount on premiums when you pay your premium annually (vs monthly).

Note: These quotes are just for informational purposes and while we aim to keep our reviews updated, we cannot guarantee these rates are the latest. For accurate rates, get a quote directly from Aetna International. Also, in some countries, there might also be a local country tax.

Age 18 (U.S. citizen living in Portugal)
Plan	No deductible	$10,000 deductible
MHP Classic	$205	$44
MHP Exclusive	$247	$52

Age 25 (U.S. citizen living in Portugal)
Plan	No deductible	$10,000 deductible
MHP Classic	$416	$98
MHP Exclusive	$497	$119

Age 35 (U.S. citizen living in Portugal)
Plan	No deductible	$10,000 deductible
MHP Classic	$510	$128
MHP Exclusive	$611	$155

Age 64 (U.S. citizen living in Portugal)
Plan	No deductible	$10,000 deductible
MHP Classic	$1,412	$763
MHP Exclusive	$1,666	$920

Aetna Pioneer plans

Aetna Pioneer deductible or cost share options

A deductible or cost share is the amount you must pay out of pocket before the insurance company will pay out for claims covered by your plan. Here’s a breakdown of the deductible or cost share options for Aetna Pioneer plans.

Plan	Deductible / Cost Share Options
Aetna Pioneer 1750	$0 $1,000 $2,000 $4,000 $8,000
Aetna Pioneer 1750, 2500, 4000, and 5000	0% 10% up to $2,000 20% up to $4,000 30% up to $5,000

Aetna Pioneer monthly premium costs

Below are some estimated premium costs for the Aetna Pioneer plans. Note: we could not get quotes for the Aetna Pioneer 5000+ plan on its site, so we didn’t include it here. Speak to an Aetna sales representative if you’re interested in the 5000+ plan.

For the Aetna Pioneer quotes, we pulled quotes for 4 ages (18, 25, 35, 65) and for a UK citizen who’ll be living in Portugal with no dependents. (As Aetna’s MHP are for those between 18 and 65, if you’re 65 or older, Aetna will provide quotes for its Aetna Pioneer plans instead, so we’ve also pulled quotes for a 65-year-old U.S. citizen who’ll be living in the United States.) We also ran quotes for the extremes of deductible/cost share amounts, meaning we looked at the case of no deductible and the case of maximum deductible/cost share. This way you can see the range of premium costs.

Aetna International offers a couple of discounts on premiums. You can get a 20% discount on new multi-member policies. You can also get a discount on premiums when you pay your premium annually.

Note: These quotes are just for informational purposes and while we aim to keep our reviews updated, we cannot guarantee these rates are the latest. For accurate rates, get a quote directly from Aetna International. Also, in some countries, there might also be a local country tax.

Age 65 (U.S. citizen living in Portugal)
Plan	No deductible	$8,000 deductible for 1750 plan, 30% up to $5,000 for rest
Aetna Pioneer 1750	$715	$408
Aetna Pioneer 2500	$1,129	$970
Aetna Pioneer 4000	$1,239	$1,059
Aetna Pioneer 5000	$1,609	$1,435

Age 18 (UK citizen living in Portugal)
Plan	No deductible	$8,000 deductible for 1750 plan, 30% up to $5,000 for rest
Aetna Pioneer 1750	$113	$64
Aetna Pioneer 2500	$173	$137
Aetna Pioneer 4000	$194	$154
Aetna Pioneer 5000	$236	$199

Age 25 (UK citizen living in Portugal)
Plan	No deductible	$8,000 deductible for 1750 plan, 30% up to $5,000 for rest
Aetna Pioneer 1750	$136	$78
Aetna Pioneer 2500	$210	$170
Aetna Pioneer 4000	$234	$189
Aetna Pioneer 5000	$297	$254

Age 35 (UK citizen living in Portugal)
Plan	No deductible	$8,000 deductible for 1750 plan, 30% up to $5,000 for rest
Aetna Pioneer 1750	$175	$100
Aetna Pioneer 2500	$276	$228
Aetna Pioneer 4000	$321	$264
Aetna Pioneer 5000	$416	$360

Age 65 (UK citizen living in Portugal)
Plan	$0 deductible	$8,000 deductible for 1750 plan, 30% up to $5,000 for rest
Aetna Pioneer 1750	$715	$408
Aetna Pioneer 2500	$1,129	$970
Aetna Pioneer 4000	$1,239	$1,059
Aetna Pioneer 5000	$1,609	$1,435

Getting treatment and the claims process

One of the most frustrating aspects of health insurance is the claims and billing process. While living abroad, the health care system can be even more unfamiliar. Thus, using a provider that offers seamless and simple processes can really make a difference in how much time, and potentially money, you save.

Getting treatment

Prior to receiving treatment, you should review your benefits information to determine if pre-authorization is needed for your treatment and to ensure that the hospital or medical provider can invoice and settle bills directly with Aetna International. Taking these steps will help you avoid the hassle of having to submit claims. You can locate hospitals and medical providers within Aetna’s network and access the pre-authorization form by logging into your online account or using Aetna International’s mobile app.

Making claims

If you have to pay for treatment directly, to get reimbursed for covered costs, you’ll need to submit a claim. Aetna International offers several ways to submit a claim:

• Aetna International’s Health Hub mobile app
• Aetna International’s Health Hub online account
• Email
• Mail

To submit a claim through email or mail, you can download a claims form on the Aetna International website, complete the form, and email or mail the form along with your invoice(s).

According to Aetna, 80% of fully completed claims are processed within 5.5 days. Note: depending on your bank’s international transaction timelines, it can take more time for the payment to reach your bank account. Also, if you mail in your documents, then the reimbursement will take longer.

Customer support

Navigating medical care abroad, especially if you don’t know the local language, can be challenging. Thus, the type of customer support that an insurance provider offers can help you navigate the local health systems with your international health insurance.

Online and mobile app support

Aetna International customers have access to Aetna’s online account and mobile app called Health Hub. With Health Hub, Aetna International customers can find nearby doctors and hospitals, submit and track claims, estimate out-of-pocket costs, compare costs and quality of area hospitals, medical procedures, and prescriptions, and access plan documents and a library of health and wellness information.

Email

You can also reach Aetna International customer support by emailing its support team.

Phone support

Aetna International offers several phone numbers that you can call at any time, 24/7, to reach customer support.

Cancellations

The cancellation policy for Aetna’s international health insurance plans vary depending on the plan.

For Aetna’s MHP plans, you may cancel your plan within 30 days of receiving the full terms and conditions of your policy or from the start date of your policy. If you cancel within this 30-day period, you’ll get a full refund. If you don’t cancel within the 30-day period, your insurance contract becomes binding and your full premium for the selected insurance year will be due according to the payment frequency you selected. In other words, after the 30-day period, you cannot cancel your plan before your plan term is done. If this is a concern, there are other providers that offer more flexible cancellation policies.

For the Aetna Pioneer plans, if you want to cancel within 15 days of receiving your plan documents or the plan start date, whichever is later, you can call Aetna to get a full refund, if you haven’t made any claims. If you want to cancel after the 15 days, you can cancel in writing. You’ll receive a pro-rated refund if you haven’t submitted any claims. For any cancellation after the first 15 days, Aetna International charges a cancellation fee of $170/£100/€150, plus any further/unexpected costs.