In several countries, health insurance is not optional. The Gulf States require it of visitors and residents alike, and entry or residency can depend on holding it. Elsewhere it is the difference between choosing your treatment and accepting whatever the local public system can offer at the time.

In an emergency abroad, the reassurance is twofold: that the medical costs are covered, and that you are receiving the best treatment available rather than the most affordable one.

Cost: Medical bills escalate quickly when you are living or travelling outside your home system, and there is no cap on what a serious episode can reach.

Access: In countries running parallel public and private systems, international cover is what lets you use the better of the two without weighing up how to fund it.

Choice: Local policies commonly restrict you to the area where the policy was written, or to a pre-selected network of doctors and treatment centres. International cover leaves the hospital, the consultant and the appointment time to you.

Speed: Good public systems are often over-subscribed ones. Where the UK has waiting lists, the same is true elsewhere; international cover is how you avoid joining one.

Language: Being treated by a doctor who speaks your own language sometimes means being treated at an international medical centre. Those are expensive, and cover is what makes them accessible.

International policies are written by zone or region, and the choice has real cost implications: excluding the US and Canada, for instance, reduces the premium considerably. If you travel a great deal, or move between countries regularly, worldwide cover is usually the sensible answer, because the insurance travels with you and covers any country or region named in the policy.

If your life is genuinely centred on one region, paying for global cover is money spent on a risk you don't run. Working out which of those describes you is the useful part of the conversation.

The most suitable policy depends heavily on individual circumstances: where you are based, how often you move, whether dependants travel with you, and which countries you need named. We advise on insurance contracts across a range of products from trusted international providers, and can compare how each behaves on the points that will actually matter to you.

To talk it through, call us on 01453 297100 or request a quote and an adviser will come back to you.