The International Schools Review Forum

I am looking at returning to the international school circuit while my family remains in the States. Does anyone have experience with schools providing insurance to your family if they are not residing with you? I had been limiting myself to schools which offered worldwide insurance but am now realizing that even if they offer worldwide, my family may not be covered.

You wouldn't be on a family or dependent contract because nobody would be coming with you. Unless they came and then you manufactured an "emergency" that took your spouse and kids back home for the rest of your contract? If the school found out they might not be too happy with you...

Generally they won’t be covered. Benefits are for accompanying dependents only. So no flights, housing for you only, etc.
if they start with you but then leave, they would cease to be accompanying, and lose benefits.
I was there when a colleague got fired for not telling the school his family had left. He took their flight allowance anyway and got caught.

Well you may have a family/dependent package. You could just as easily have a delayed arrival of your family that never happened. It would be a lot easier manufacturing an excuse for their delay then why they have to leave. However, in general I would agree with @SJ, if they arent traveling with you its more likely the lower the tier of the IS the more likely you would receive only single benefits. ISs generally operate on the principal of actual costs, where upper tier ISs would provide better probabilities of getting whatever benefits describe the category you would fit into on paper (if youre married with 2 kids, your going to get the stipulated allowance for that category, regardless of where your spouse and children are actually located or what they are doing). There are ITs who take the full housing allowance for their family despite living in a residence provided by the other spouses employer, because thats what the benefit is.

In regards to medical insurance you are going to have a significant challenge ahead of you, the ISs that do provide true world side coverage that includes the US is a much smaller group, and the ones that do the coverage is provided as a supplemental policy to cover either only emergency care or only for a very limited time. Its just the way the policies are written because that describes the general scenario. An IS that would have a true year round worldwide policy that included the US for regular care would be very difficult to find. Its likely the carrier has no agreements with any providers in your area for long term care and services, and there likely arent any billing arrangements in place. If you found such a policy and IS there is also the high possibility that at some point the policy interpretation is either amended and changed or is rewritten possibly in mid contract. Its essentially very easy to say you will have coverage until you actually need it and then the issue becomes a lot less certain, as the problem is the plan carriers and less the ISs. They could read everything they have and make calls and give you assurances, but none of those will mean very much is some adjuster or plan supervisor denies benefits. The IS will apologize and truly be sorry but aside from appealing on your behalf there is very little they can do.

My advice if its really an issue for you is to possibly negotiate a health care allowance that you can use to purchase a policy for your family in the states, but even then youre looking at first and elite tier ISs that would go for that and they would have to really want you. The other option is to explore what Medicaid or CHIP services in your home state that would be available. Otherwise your going to have to look at paying for an insurance policy on your own coin.

Thanks for all the feedback. My last school provided Aetna insurance with full coverage in the states; I guess I was just spoiled and forgot that isn't the way it works generally. Thanks for the suggestion of an insurance stipend.