Cigna Global international health insurance review

About Cigna

Cigna Global Health Benefits (aka Cigna Global or Cigna) is a part of Cigna, a global insurance company founded in the United States. Cigna Global offers individual international healthcare plans, dental and vision plans, and other health and wellbeing benefits. Cigna covers over 95 million customers in more than 30 countries.

Eligibility

Age

In order to purchase a Cigna international health insurance plan, you must be at least 18 years old. There is no maximum age limit.

Pre-existing conditions

You can purchase a Cigna plan if you have a pre-existing condition, but your condition will likely be excluded from coverage unless agreed upon with Cigna.

Cigna international health insurance plan options

Core plans & benefit limits

Cigna global offers 4 plans to individuals and families. Below is a breakdown of the plans and their annual benefit limits. The limit amount is the maximum per covered individual per coverage period and includes all claims.

Plan	Benefit Limit
Close Care	$500,000 ($250,000 condition limit) €400,000 (€200,000 condition limit) £325,000 (£165,000 condition limit)
Silver	$1,000,000 €800,000 £650,000
Gold	$2,000,000 €1,600,000 £1,300,000
Platinum	Unlimited

Coverage add-ons

You may add optional benefits (Cigna refers to these as modules) to your plan for an additional cost. Also, what you can add depends on your core plan.

Here’s a breakdown of additional modules that are available with the core plans.

Core Plan	Available Additional Coverage
Close Care	Outpatient & Wellness Care Dental Care & Treatment
Silver / Gold / Platinum	Outpatient & Wellness Care Medical Evacuation Health and Wellbeing Vision and Dental

Area of coverage

All of Cigna’s plans, except for the Close Care plan, provide the option to cover you worldwide or worldwide excluding the United States. The Close Care plan provides coverage for your country of nationality and the country of residence. For example, if you’re a U.S. citizen living in Portugal, the Close Care plan provides coverage in the U.S. and Portugal.

COVID-19 coverage

Cigna says the following with regards to COVID-19 coverage: “Cigna medical plans cover medically necessary claims related to infectious diseases and medical conditions per the terms of the medical plan. Please refer to the terms in your plan for coverage details.” In other words, Cigna covers 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, deductible, cost share, and cost share out of pocket maximum still apply.

Plan coverage

All of Cigna’s plans provide coverage for the following:

• Essential hospital stays and treatments, including surgeon and specialist consultation fees, and hospital accommodation
• Full cancer care, including treatment (not including experimental treatment)
• Mental health care and treatment

Below are some standard and maternity benefits. Maternity care benefits are not included with the Close Care and Silver plans and are only available after 12 months of being covered on a plan (i.e. there is a 12-month waiting period for maternity care). Also, Cigna’s plans do not cover outpatient (outside of hospital) treatments, such as routine physicals, doctor visits for a cold, vaccinations, immunizations, cancer screenings, pap smears, blood tests and x-rays at a doctor’s office, and prescriptions. To get these coverages, you can add to a Cigna plan one of Cigna’s optional add-on benefits called Outpatient & Wellness Care.

For more details on the benefits covered by Cigna’s plans and the Outpatient & Wellness Care add-on, see Cigna’s Close Care brochure or Silver, Gold, and Platinum brochure.

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

Covered Benefit	Included with Which Plan	Plan Limits
Nursing and accommodation for inpatient and daypatient treatment and recovery room	All	None
Prescribed medicines, drugs and dressings for inpatient or daypatient treatment	All	None
Intensive care (intensive therapy, coronary care, high dependency unit)	All	None
Surgeons’ and anaesthetists’ fees	All	None
Specialists’ consultation fees	All	None
Transplant services for organ, bone marrow and stem cell transplants	All except Close Care	None
Pathology, radiology and diagnostic tests	All	None
Advanced Medical Imaging (MRI, CT and PET scans)	All	Close Care: $2,500 / €1,850 / £1,650 Silver: $5,000 / €3,700 / £3,325 Gold: $10,000 / €7,400 / £6,650
Local ambulance and air ambulance services	All	Close Care: Road ambulance only
Emergency inpatient dental treatment	All	Close Care: $2,500 / €1,850 / £1,650

Some maternity & baby care benefits

Note: while we aim to keep our reviews updated, we cannot guarantee that the benefit information here is the latest. Refer to Cigna’s site for the latest information.

Covered Benefit	Included with Which Plan	Plan Limits
Routine maternity benefit care (after 12 months of coverage)	Gold & Platinum	Gold: $7,000 / €5,500 / £4,500 Platinum: $14,000 / €11,000 / £9,000
Complications from maternity (after 12 months of coverage)	Gold & Platinum	Gold: $14,000 / €11,000 / £9,000 Platinum: $28,000 / €22,000 / £18,000
Newborn care within first 90 days after birth	Silver, Gold, & Platinum	Silver: $25,000 / €18,500 / £16,500 Gold: $75,000 / €55,500 / £48,000 Platinum: $156,000 / €122,000 / £100,000

Exclusions

Health insurance plans generally have treatments, expenses, and procedures that they don’t cover. These are referred to as exclusions. Below are some of the conditions and situations that Cigna does not cover. Cigna’s exclusions are fairly consistent with those of other international health insurance providers.

• Pre-existing conditions
• Contraceptive and family planning
• Self-inflicted injuries
• Obesity treatment
• Addiction and substance abuse

Cigna international health insurance costs

Cigna offers one of the most robust plan and pricing customization options. Having these options allow you to tailor your plan to your needs but also makes choosing one more complex. Your costs will depend on the area of coverage, which plan and add-ons you get, your age, whether you want United States coverage, the deductible amount, the cost share percentage, and the cost share maximum out of pocket amount that you choose.

Generally, these factors directly impact your rate (the higher of these, the higher your costs):

• Annual limit
• Include U.S. coverage
• Age

And these factors indirectly impact your rate (the higher of these, the lower your costs):

• Deductible
• Cost share percentage
• Cost share out of pocket max

Deductible options

A deductible is the amount you must pay out of pocket before the insurance company will pay for claims covered by your plan. Cigna offers 7 deductible options across all of its 4 plans.

USD ($)	EURO (€)	POUND (£)
$0 $375 $750 $1,500 $3,000 $7,500 $10,000	€0 €275 €550 €1,100 €2,200 €5,500 €7,400	£0 £250 £500 £1,000 £2,000 £5,000 £6,650

Cost share and out of pocket maximum options

After you’ve hit your deductible amount (i.e. you’ve paid out of pocket your plan’s deductible amount), you can split the cost of claims with Cigna up to a maximum out of pocket amount. The out of pocket maximum is the maximum amount of cost share you would have to pay in a coverage period. Your deductible amount does not contribute to your out of pocket maximum. Once you’ve reached your out of pocket maximum, you won’t have to pay for any covered claims.

Cigna offers 4 cost share options and 2 out of pocket maximum options for all of its plans.

Cost Share Options	Out of Pocket Maximum Options
0% 10% 20% 30%	$2,000 or $5,000 €1,480 or €3,700 £1,330 or £3,325

Monthly premium costs

We were not able to find quotes for Cigna’s Close Care plan online. We’re waiting to hear from Cigna on costs for the Close Care plan. Below are some estimated costs for the Silver, Gold, and Platinum plans and for the Outpatient and Wellbeing add-ons. Note: Cigna offers a 3% discount if you pay quarterly and a 10% discount if you pay annually.

We pulled quotes for 4 ages (18, 25, 35, and 65) and for a U.S. citizen who’ll be living in Portugal with no dependents. (From a quick glance, costs for a U.S. citizen living in Portugal are lower than living in some other countries, such as Singapore, Canada, or India.) We also ran quotes for the extremes of deductible and cost share amounts, meaning we looked at the case of no out of pocket contributions (i.e $0 deductible and 0% cost share) and the case of maximum out of pocket contributions (i.e. $10,000 deductible and 30% cost share with a $5,000 out of pocket (OOP) max). This way you can see the range of premium costs.

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 Cigna. Also, in some countries, there might also be a local country tax.

Age 18 ($0 deductible, 0% cost share)
Plan	Worldwide excl. U.S.	Worldwide incl. U.S.
Silver	$68.62	$85.41
Gold	$88.09	$109.65
Platinum	$115.91	$144.27
Outpatient add-on	$27.23	$33.90
Health & Wellbeing add-on	$7.49	$9.32
Age 18 ($10,000 deductible, 30% with $5,000 OOP max)
Plan	Worldwide excl. U.S.	Worldwide incl. U.S.
Silver	$22.01	$27.40
Gold	$28.26	$35.18
Platinum	$37.19	$46.28
Outpatient add-on	$27.23	$33.90
Health & Wellbeing add-on	$7.49	$9.32

Age 25 ($0 deductible, 0% cost share)
Plan	Worldwide excl. U.S.	Worldwide incl. U.S.
Silver	93.88	$116.85
Gold	120.52	$150.02
Platinum	158.58	$197.39
Outpatient add-on	$41.56	$51.73
Health & Wellbeing add-on	$11.86	$14.76
Age 25 ($10,000 deductible, 30% with $5,000 OOP max)
Plan	Worldwide excl. U.S.	Worldwide incl. U.S.
Silver	$30.58	$38.06
Gold	$39.26	$48.86
Platinum	$51.65	$64.29
Outpatient add-on	$41.56	$51.73
Health & Wellbeing add-on	$11.86	$14.76

Age 35 ($0 deductible, 0% cost share)
Plan	Worldwide excl. U.S.	Worldwide incl. U.S.
Silver	$124.01	$154.35
Gold	$115.92	$198.16
Platinum	$209.47	$260.73
Outpatient add-on	$65.72	$81.81
Health & Wellbeing add-on	$14.98	$18.64
Age 35 ($10,000 deductible, 30% with $5,000 OOP max)
Plan	Worldwide excl. U.S.	Worldwide incl. U.S.
Silver	$42.97	$53.49
Gold	$55.17	$68.67
Platinum	$72.59	$90.36
Outpatient add-on	$65.72	$81.81
Health & Wellbeing add-on	$14.98	$18.64

Age 65 ($0 deductible, 0% cost share)
Plan	Worldwide excl. U.S.	Worldwide incl. U.S.
Silver	$322.79	$401.77
Gold	$414.39	$515.79
Platinum	$545.25	$678.67
Outpatient add-on	$153.43	$190.98
Health & Wellbeing add-on	$23.33	$29.04
Age 65 ($10,000 deductible, 30% with $5,000 OOP max)
Plan	Worldwide excl. U.S.	Worldwide incl. U.S.
Silver	$179.15	$222.99
Gold	$230.00	$286.27
Platinum	$302.63	$376.68
Outpatient add-on	$153.43	$190.98
Health & Wellbeing add-on	$23.33	$29.04

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

To avoid as much of the hassle of paying for care and then going through the process of claiming back what you paid, get care from a hospital, clinic, or doctor that will invoice Cigna—and not you—directly. You can find the appropriate hospitals, doctors, and clinics by reaching out to Cigna’s Customer Care Team or by logging into your Cigna online account and searching Cigna’s directory of hospitals, clinics, and doctors. You’ll still get invoiced by the hospital or doctor directly for any deductibles.

Making claims

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

• Online
• Email
• Fax
• Mail

To submit a claim through email, fax, or mail, you can download a claims form from the Cigna site, complete the form, and email, fax, or mail the form along with your invoice(s) to Cigna.

Cigna aims to reimburse claims within 5 business days of receiving all required paperwork. If you mail in your documents, then the reimbursement will take longer. Cigna will reimburse you in the currency of your choice. Note: depending on your bank’s international transaction timelines, it can take more time for the payment to reach your bank account.

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 support

Cigna customers have access to Cigna’s online Customer Area. In the Customer Area, you can access policy documents, submit claims and access claims form, get medical, travel, safety and cultural information, get information on how to access hospitals, clinics, and doctors, and more.

Email

You can also reach Cigna customer support by emailing its Customer Care Team.

Phone support

Cigna offers several phone numbers that you can call at any time, 24/7, to reach customer support. There is a dedicated number for each of the following:

• Worldwide
• Inside the U.S.
• Inside Hong Kong
• Inside Singapore
• Inside UAE Dubai

Cancellations

You may cancel your plan at any time. To cancel, you’ll need to give Cigna a 7-day notice in writing. This is the most flexible cancellation policy among the international health insurance providers we’ve reviewed.