For some time, the digitisation of healthcare, combined with increasing global mobility and rising healthcare costs, has been shifting customer expectations within the international private medical insurance (IPMI) space. Customers began to demand, and indeed expect, online services, broader global networks, clearer benefits, and better value. These wants and needs were accelerated by the global pandemic, at which time telemedicine, flexibility, and digital-first services became essential. Alongside these patterns, increased visibility and reduced stigma around mental health have led to growing calls for wellbeing services and mental health cover, and, similarly, greater awareness has driven higher demand for fertility and family-related cover.

More accessibility of information and awareness of mental health, fertility, and other needs mean that today’s consumers are better educated about IPMI. “Over the past few years, it’s become clear that customers are much more educated in terms of coverage and where they want to seek treatment,” David Capote, President of Trawick International Latin America, told ITIJ. “Today’s clients have often done research on hospital outcomes, patient satisfaction ratings, and other key success metrics prior to seeking treatment.” It’s clear that in order to remain relevant and competitive, policies must continue to evolve in line with customer understanding.

Shifting expectations

One clear shift is the rising requirement for digital services. Insurers are increasingly embedding telehealth into IPMI offerings in response to customer demand for remote, digital healthcare. Indeed, the 2025 WTW Global Medical Trends Survey reported that 47% of global insurers added telehealth services in 2024, which grew from 41% in 2023. When it comes to wellbeing, the survey found that, in 2024, 48% of insurers added wellbeing services to their medical portfolios.

Customers are much more educated in terms of coverage and where they want to seek treatment

Simon Jackson, Chief Growth Officer at Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) Global Solutions, confirmed that mental health support was one of the fastest-growing expectations in global health cover. “For mobile individuals, students and assignees, the psychological load of moving countries, adapting cultures, living away from support networks, and handling work or study stress is significant,” he explained. In view of this, BCBS Global Solutions offers access anytime, anywhere to remote counselling; multilingual, culturally aware support; pre-emptive support; and stigma reduction education.

Capote agreed: “While essential coverage remains the same, we have seen now that wellness and preventative care are top of mind in many countries.”

Mental health

The pandemic heightened the need for mental health services, fundamentally changing what customers expect from their policies, and mental health became a core pillar of modern global health cover. Capote noted this turning point: “Ever since the pandemic, we have noticed an increased focus and demand for mental health support. Historically, IPMI policies in the LatAm region offered fairly limited coverage, but now many IPMI carriers are partnering with regional third-party administrators (TPAs) to offer more robust mental health benefits, and I believe this trend will only continue.”

ITIJ also spoke with David Eline, Founder and CEO of Health Compass, who confirmed that mental health was high on the agenda and gave an insight into what provisions were being made to address this. “It’s right to say that mental health cover is core to most IPMI offerings. The extent will differ plan by plan, but the key elements we see providers incorporating are confidentiality, multilingual virtual counselling, and stigma awareness,” he highlighted. “Access is key: members must have the same level of quality support whichever country they are in.”

Fertility and family cover

There is also a rising requirement for fertility support and inclusive family-building benefits. “Family health is complex and providers have made great strides forward in developing solutions that work for a wide range of scenarios,” Eline told ITIJ. Indeed, according to the WTW Global Medical Trends Survey, around half of insurers provide fertility and family-planning services in some capacity, with specialist consultant services representing the most common type of service across all regions, where it is covered by 48% of insurers worldwide.

Jackson also noted the growing demand for fertility benefits. “As mobile populations increasingly include young dual-career professionals, single parents, same-sex couples, and individuals moving for lifestyle reasons, benefit design must evolve,” he stated. “We’ve partnered with Carrot to include fertility support and family-building benefits – IVF, fertility preservation, adoption, surrogacy where legal – as part of our offering. For many mobile employees, the ability to build a family is now a key retention factor.”

Since the pandemic, we have noticed an increased focus and demand for mental health support

Jackson pointed out that what was once a ‘nice-to-have’ has now become a key expectation: “We ensure coverage can extend to same-sex couples, single parents by choice, and, where regulation allows, gender-affirming care. Navigation support is essential – legal, regulatory, logistics, travel, coordination with local clinics. In effect, family-building is shifting from a nice-to-have to an expected part of a modern global health insurance bundle.”

The WTW Global Medical Trends Survey found that about 12% of insurers globally reported adding fertility services to their programmes in 2024. However, despite the growing calls for fertility care, most insurers reported that they did not plan to cover additional fertility services in 2025.

Adapting plans

Today’s consumers are also calling for broader and more interconnected packages. Eline said: “IPMI moved on from just providing emergency treatment cover many years ago in response to customer demand and providers looking to differentiate themselves. Now it’s about comprehensive programmes delivered seamlessly. What elements are essential obviously depend on the individual customer. However, I’d say that the extent of cover and breadth of network are the two main benefits. The process around accessing the care they need comes next – no-one wants a drawn-out process when they are unwell.”

As they strive to meet changing customer expectations, insurers are also navigating regional regulations, cultural differences, and local healthcare norms. There’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all global product; plans must reflect the different ways in which countries operate. Jackson said: “Adapting global health cover across regions is not simply a matter of ‘add more providers to the network’. It requires tailoring to how customers in those regions think about health, family, and wellbeing, and it also means ensuring compliance with local regulations.”

Capote said it was important that IPMI companies took into consideration local cultural trends in order to adapt to customers’ needs. “A good example is Brazil, which has a very high utilisation of annual check-ups and preventative care in comparison to the rest of the region. In response to this, IPMI providers in the country offer more robust coverages and check-up packages to meet this cultural need,” he stated. “You see similar flexibility in other key markets such as Chile.”

Being able to adapt to cultural differences relies on boots-on-the-ground understanding. “It’s key for insurers to have people on the ground, living and breathing the culture, when adapting plans,” Eline underlined. “That’s how providers pick up on the small nuances that make a solution genuinely work for that country. Compliance is by each country’s rule book, but culture is arguably more complex and difficult to get right. It’s building a product that cleverly incorporates elements of cultural importance that can really make it stand out.”

Consistency of care

People are moving between countries more than ever before; the 2025 WTW Global Medical Trends Survey found that the percentage of employees travelling internationally for work increased from 10% in 2021 to 17% in 2023. Through mobility-focused benefits, global networks, and coordinated care models, IPMI providers are ensuring that consistency of care is maintained across borders. “The world is more globally mobile than ever, and IPMI needs to keep up with that trend.” Eline confirmed. “We’ve seen a number of provider initiatives in this area, including specific return-home-for-care cover options, integrated digital records, and cross-border treatment agreements.”

The world is more globally mobile than ever, and IPMI needs to keep up with that trend

Jackson said that one of the biggest risks for globally mobile individuals was fragmentation of care. “Moving across countries, health systems, providers, languages, and time zones can mean the member loses continuity, context, or prior records,” he commented. “At BCBS Global Solutions we address this by offering portable coverage, whereby the core benefits and access are maintained regardless of the country of assignment or study; maintaining a global provider network plus home country network, meaning that when treatment is needed, the member can choose based on access, quality and cost, with the insurer supporting cross-border referrals and logistics; and offering pre-departure, on-assignment and return-home health planning, with guidance on how their cover transitions, what continuity of care looks like, and how to manage chronic conditions or ongoing care when moving.”

Maintaining high-quality, consistent care also requires strong relationships with vetted providers. Capote said: “Regionally, we ensure that we work with highly reputable hospitals and providers to guarantee high-quality care for our customers. To ensure the best possible outcomes, our plans also offer in-home care when medically justified, coordinated with the treating physician, including in-home treatment and delivery of prescribed medications.”

The next wave of innovation

As customer needs continue to evolve and IPMI providers to innovate, hyper-personalised plans, enhanced predictive and preventative care, and more and more inclusive benefits will make up the next wave of innovation. “Personalisation and predictive health are the two areas that I see having the most potential for improvement using technology,” stated Eline. “Artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics will increasingly enable cover to adapt to real-time health data and this will help insurers to become proactive wellness partners rather than reactive claims settlers. That will be achieved one step at a time and it will be the holy grail for many providers.”

Jackson agreed that predictive analytics and proactive wellbeing would continue to evolve. “Insurers will increasingly use data to flag high-risk transitions and proactively engage with coaching, pre-departure mental health briefings, and relocation-stress navigation,” he highlighted, adding that digitally driven care engagement would also ramp up. “Increased use of apps, remote monitoring, AI-driven mental health screening, AI-driven language translation, digital wellbeing tools (especially for students and younger assignees) will become even more widespread,” he said.

Another future development is modular plans, by which customers can mix and match benefits. Capote said that Trawick International responded to an opportunity for product innovation in the LatAm IPMI market here: “Trawick International was the first company to introduce a modular IPMI product in the region which allows customers the ability to adjust their coverages and premiums according to their budget and stage-of-life requirements. I believe this type of flexibility and adaptiveness will be a continued trend.”

As mental health support, fertility and family benefits, digital healthcare, and cross-border continuity shift from nice-to-have to non-negotiable, insurers are responding with broader, more flexible, and more culturally responsive plans. Keeping pace with these continually evolving expectations and keeping a finger on the pulse of developments will be essential for insurers to remain relevant and competitive.