In this third and final article in our series about complementary health insurance, we will present some of the available options for this type of insurance. If you have missed the previous articles, you can still find them all on our website [1] and linked below[*].
As explained in the previous articles, the external schemes fall into two categories: ‘Hospitalisation only’ and ‘Hospitalisation and other medical expenses’. We present the schemes in this order. Please note that we cannot present every detail of every insurance – if you are interested, please check with either the insurance companies or the collective offering the insurance policies for your specific case. Furthermore, we limit ourselves to policies that are available to active staff – some policies are only available for retirees and we do not cover these.
A word of caution: there is a difference between the terms ‘day-care’ (or ‘day case’ or ‘one-day’) and ‘outpatient’. An outpatient does not need a bed in a hospital ward and does not stay overnight – they might just go the hospital for a short test. A day case is a patient who goes to the hospital for a more involved procedure than an outpatient does, e.g. for light surgery. In these circumstances they might need some recovery time after your treatment, but it is expected that they can go home the same day.
Hospitalisation only
The available options for such insurance can be split into two groups: collective insurance policies and individual insurance policies. Please bear in a mind that the following insurance covers hospitalisation (and sometimes day case clinics) only, i.e. not outpatient treatment.
Collective insurance policy
Hospi Safe Illness by Afiliatys [2]
Hospi Safe covers hospitalisation and includes one-day clinics. It covers the difference between the joint sickness insurance scheme (JSIS) reimbursement and the actual expenditure. The reimbursement is not subject to JSIS ceilings and excessive cost rules and is available also to colleagues in delegations.
- It is possible to also include accidents in this policy
- Partners and children can also be included
- There is no waiting period, but you have a moratorium of 2 years for pre-existing conditions.
- The insurance is lifelong, i.e. there is no upper age limit.
- The cover is worldwide, but there are limits outside the European Economic Area (EEA).
- Yearly premiums depend on age (as of 2020: including BE taxes).
| Age | 0-1 | 2-18 | 19-35 | 36-50 | 51-60 | 61+ |
| Annual premium (€) including accidents | 0.00 | 72.33 | 86.78 | 130.15 | 173.56 | 242.99 |
| Annual premium (€) excluding accidents | 0.00 | 52.51 | 64.21 | 96.15 | 128.32 | 178.41 |
Individual insurance policies
EuroSanté Tranquillité by Allianz Care [3]
There are several variations of this insurance. We describe here the cheapest option, ‘Tranquillité’. It covers hospitalisation and includes one-day clinics. It covers the difference between the JSIS reimbursement and the actual expenditure. The reimbursement is not subject to JSIS ceilings, but if the JSIS excludes something, then this policy does not cover it, either.
- Equally, dental expenses are only covered by more expensive options of the policy.
- Accidents are included.
- Partners and children can also be included
- There is no waiting period, but you have to fill in a medical questionnaire.
- The insurance is lifelong.
- The cover is worldwide, but there are limits outside the European Economic Area (EEA).
- Yearly premiums depend on age (as of 2020: including BE taxes).
| Age | 0-18 | 19-35 | 36-50 | 51-60 | 61-67 | 68 – 75 | 76-80 | 81+ |
| Annual premium (€) | 62 | 75 | 113 | 150 | 188 | 235 | 294 | 367 |
EUCARE by Santalia [4]
This policy exists in three variants: EUCARE+, EUCARE HOSPI and Santalia EUCARE HOSPI+. We describe here only the ‘HOSPI’ variants, because the EUCARE+ policy includes more than just hospitalisation and is described later. The only difference between HOSPI and HOSPI+ is that the latter includes a single room in the hospital.
- Accidents are included.
- Partners and children can also be included
- Waiting period of 3 months, but no medical questionnaire.
- The insurance is lifelong.
- Most of the JSIS limits apply: this goes for territorial limits, and also for the ceilings and exclusion rules. Within these limits, this policy reimburses 15% or 20%, depending on the JSIS reimbursement.
- There is no publicly available information about the premiums to pay. You have to ask for a quote for your information.
Europat by Expat & Co [5]
This insurance consists of several modules. Module 1 covers health. Further, the insurance has three versions: ‘light’, ‘standard’ and ‘gold’. The publicly available documents do not provide any details on the difference. Moreover, if this is not complicated enough already, you can also take two additional options to the core insurance (‘extended outpatient treatment’ and ‘dental cover’). We do not include the options in our summary.
The insurance covers the difference between the JSIS reimbursement and the actual expenditure. If the JSIS does not intervene, the insurance still covers 20% of the costs. However, there are ceilings for some treatments.
- Accidents are included.
- Partners and children can also be included.
- There is no medical questionnaire, but a 3-month waiting period for some treatments. Pre-existing illnesses are not covered.
- The insurance is lifelong.
- There are territorial limits of the cover – worldwide cover costs more than EEA.
- There is no publicly available information about the premiums to pay. You have to ask for a quote for your information.
Hospitalisation and outpatient expenses
These examples of insurance cover more than just hospitalisation and are therefore much more expensive.
Collective insurance policy
Hospi Safe+ by Afiliatys [2]
This insurance is an extension of the Hospi Safe Illness insurance presented above. It covers 100% of the difference between the JSIS reimbursement and the actual expenditure for hospitalisation and 80% of the difference for several outpatient treatments, including dental care. Ceilings exist for the outpatient treatments.
- Accidents are included.
- Partners and children can also be included.
- A medical questionnaire is not required, unless you take out insurance less than 6 months prior to your retirement. Furthermore, there is no waiting period but a moratorium of 2 years for illnesses existing at the moment of the subscription.
- The insurance is lifelong.
- The cover is worldwide, but there are limitations outside the EEA.
- Yearly premiums depend on age (as of 2020: including BE taxes).
| Age | 0-1 | 2-18 | 19-35 | 36-50 | 51-60 | 61+ |
| Annual premium (€) | 0.00 | 525.07 | 642.07 | 961.51 | 1283.20 | 1784.13 |
Individual insurance policies
EuroSanté Optimum by Allianz Care [3]
This insurance is related to the EuroSanté Tranquillité insurance described above but includes outpatient and dental treatment. For hospitalisation, the cover is identical to EuroSanté Tranquillité. For outpatient treatments, the policy covers the difference between the JSIS reimbursement and the actual expenditure, up to a maximum of 20% of the total costs. For some outpatient treatments, the insurance reimburses any possible remaining gap at 80%. Dental costs are reimbursed at 80%, with a ceiling.
- Accidents are included.
- Partners and children can also be included
- There is no waiting period, but you have to fill in a medical questionnaire.
- The insurance is lifelong.
- The cover is worldwide, but there are limitation outside of the EEA.
- Yearly premiums depend on age (as of 2020: including BE taxes).
| Age | 0-18 | 19-35 | 36-50 | 51-60 | 61-67 | 68 – 75 | 76-80 | 81+ |
| Annual premium (€) | 450 | 551 | 826 | 1101 | 1363 | 1704 | 2130 | 2664 |
EU Health by Foyer Global Health [6]
This insurance covers hospitalisation, outpatient treatments and dental costs. It covers 20% of the costs and does not require a prior JSIS intervention.
- Accidents are included.
- Partners and children can also be included
- There is no overall waiting period, but some treatments have an individual waiting period (e.g. some dental treatments).
- The insurance is lifelong.
- The cover is worldwide, with one exception: the United States is only included for short-term travel of up to 6 weeks.
- There is no publicly available information about the premiums to pay. You have to ask for a quote for your information.
EUCARE+ by Santalia [4]
As mentioned earlier, this is the ‘supersize’ version of the EUCARE HOSPI policy presented above.
- Accidents are included.
- Partners and children can also be included
- Waiting period of 3 months for hospitalisation and 6 months for dental care, but no medical questionnaire.
- The insurance is lifelong.
- Most of the JSIS limits apply: this goes for territorial limits, but also for the ceilings and exclusion rules. Within these limits, this policy reimburses 15% or 20%, depending on the JSIS reimbursement.
- There is no publicly available information about the premiums to pay. You have to ask for a quote for your information.
Europat + options 2 and 3 by Expat & Co [5]
As mentioned above, this insurance consists of several modules and we choose Module 1, health. For the outpatient treatment, we add Option 1 (‘outpatient’) and Option 2 (‘dental cover’). As mentioned above, the insurance has three versions: ‘light’, ‘standard’ and ‘gold’. The publicly available documents do not provide any details on the difference.
The insurance covers the difference between the JSIS reimbursement and the actual expenditure. If the JSIS does not intervene, the insurance still covers 20% of the costs. However, there are ceilings for some treatments.
- Accidents are included.
- Partners and children can also be included
- There is no medical questionnaire, but a 3-month waiting period for some treatments and 12 months for some dental treatments. Pre-existing conditions are not covered.
- The insurance is lifelong.
- There are territorial limits of the cover – worldwide cover costs more than EEA.
- There is no publicly available information about the premiums to pay. You have to ask for a quote for your information.
This article closes our series about complementary health insurance. We hope you find it useful. If you have specific questions about a health insurance, we suggest that you contact the insurance companies: each insurance varies in the details and finding the one that best suits your case is impossible without knowing all the individual requirements.
[*] See also Selection criteria for a complementary health scheme [7] and External health insurance as a supplement to JSIS [8].
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Older updates
*Update 25.11.2024 Here are the 2024 versions (EN [9]/FR [10]) for the HR list. it is normally a prerequisite to join The affinity club of the European Institutions (5€).[**] **Check out the tables on pages 18-19 of this file on supplementary health insurance policies [11] for the HR list.*
[**] Unfortunately many of the Afiliatys offers [12] are Brussels specific, if you cannot choose your site from a drop-down list then this is probably the case. On mentioning this to Afiliatys in the past with relation to an offer on a mobile phone device they suggested the workaround of having the item delivered elsewhere, but this comes with additional complications e.g. where you make use of the guarantee on the item.
*Update 15.12.2022: ‘We also advise all JSIS members to opt for private complementary insurance to supplement the JSIS reimbursement in the event of major medical expenses (hospitalization, etc.).’ (JSIS, Practical information [13]).*