You may have heard the name “ACS” when doing your own research about expat health insurance in Asian countries.
ACS is an insurance brokerage company in France that has been in the business for more than 40 years. They provide a wide range of insurance policies not only for expats in Asia, but for expats all over the world.
In this review article, I’m going to break down everything you need to know about ACS, including what products they offer, the claim procedure, and more. At the end of the article, you will have a good idea of whether or not you should buy insurance from them.
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Contents
Background
ACS Insurance is not only known among expats across Asia for providing competitive health insurance, but also globally to help expatriates find insurance solutions while living abroad. ACS is based in France and has been operating for more than 40 years, and has expertise in helping expats get insured around the world.
The company is an independent insurance broker based in France, rather than an insurance company. This means they are acting on behalf of the insurer they are working with by developing their own products, and in ACS’ case in particular, products for expats. Most of their plans are underwritten by insurance companies out of Allianz group, but ACS has also partnered with AXA, MGEN, CFE, and others.
Therefore, ACS has some of the strongest insurance companies on their side, with some of the best reputations in the market, and can be considered a reliable insurance partner.
Over a hundred thousand expats and travellers alike are insured by them every year.
Products
ACS offers a variety of different medical insurance solutions for different scenarios, for individuals, families, and groups while living or travelling abroad.
Most known are Travel Medical, Expatriate, International Business and Student Medical insurance:
Expatriate Medical insurance
ACS has two different medical insurance types for foreigners advertised on their website: “Expatriate Insurance” and “Foreign Resident Insurance”.
Expatriate Insurance comes with various insurance plans for expats who are living all around the world, while Foreign Resident Insurance is aimed at foreigners who are studying in or traveling to France.
The following section will look more closely at ACS’ options for Expatriation Insurance.
While ACS offers several types of expat health insurance, the most popular one is ACS Expat. In our opinion, it’s a great option for expats in Asia or regions with moderate healthcare costs
All of their products are easy to apply for through the ACS website. Every plan has a “find out more” button through which an online quote can be generated, or to simply find out more about the products by checking out the brochures and policy wordings online.
After generating the quote the application process can be started online, which is simple and straightforward.
Let’s take a look at their most prominent plans.
ACS Expat
Targeted Group: Expats living in Southeast Asia and other regions with moderate healthcare costs
ACS Expat is an international health insurance plan designed specifically for expats. It offers solid coverage at competitive rates, particularly for those living in Southeast Asia, including Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and other countries in the region.
Underwritten by ACS in France, this plan comes with a good balance of affordability and flexibility. It’s available in four tiers: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum.
ACS Expat Plan Options:
- Bronze: Covers inpatient treatment, medical evacuation, and cancer care (even outpatient). However, private room coverage is limited to $100/day and outpatient surgeries aren’t included.
- Silver: Adds psychiatric hospitalization, higher limits for post-hospital and home care, and covers outpatient doctor visits and diagnostics (as an optional add-on). It also includes a private room allowance of up to $150/day.
- Gold: Offers wider outpatient benefits, higher limits for hospitalization and post-care, and allows for more extensive add-ons like dental/optical and maternity. Private room cap is up to $250/day.
- Platinum: Maximum coverage across the board, including full private room coverage and the highest benefit limits.
Common Features Across All Plans:
- Annual Limit: Ranges from US$500,000 (Bronze) to US$3,000,000 (Platinum). The Gold plan, with a US$2,000,000 limit, offers the best value for most expats.
- Emergency Worldwide Coverage: All plans include emergency treatment coverage outside your coverage zone for trips under 7 weeks.
- Medical Evacuation: Included in every plan at 100% coverage, unlike the old Health in Asia plan where this had to be purchased as an add-on.
- Customizable Add-ons: Outpatient care, dental and optical, maternity, and assistance benefits can be added to Silver plans and above.
- Lifetime Coverage: If you join before turning 64, you can renew the plan for life. This is ideal for long-term expats who may settle permanently in Southeast Asia or abroad.
Important Notes:
- Coverage area can be selected from three zones, with Zone 1 excluding high-cost countries like the US, Hong Kong, and Japan to keep premiums low.
- Be cautious of the private room cap, especially on Bronze and Silver tiers. If you prefer high-end hospitals like Bumrungrad or Bangkok Hospital, consider Gold or Platinum instead.
- As with most international insurers, pre-existing conditions are not covered, and waiting periods apply for maternity, dental, optical, and psychiatric care.
ACS Expat is a great option for expats seeking affordable, flexible, and long-term international health insurance, particularly in Southeast Asia. It provides stronger benefits than the old ACS Health in Asia plan and now includes evacuation by default.
Tip: If you’re unsure how long you’ll stay abroad or want coverage flexibility as you age, select the lifetime renewal option when signing up. It doesn’t add much to the premium but offers peace of mind.
Expatriate Health Insurance USA
Expatriate Health Insurance USA is a US regulations (Affordable Care Act) compliant medical insurance solution for expats in the US.
In partnership with WellAway, an insurance company registered in Bermuda, ACS is able to provide several US-compliant insurance solutions.
The benefit and premium rates are reasonable for the US, with unlimited coverage as long as you stay within their network, which is very common in the US.
If you use a clinic outside the network you might end up paying a lot out of pocket or might not be covered at all.
WellAway is using Aetna’s PPO network, which is well-known across the States and should be sufficient to find an appropriate facility close-by if needed.
Travel insurance plans
ACS offers several travel insurance options. The two most interesting ones which will be reviewed more closely in this article include:
- Europax” plan for inbound travelers to Europe
- Globe Partner” plan for anyone traveling anywhere in the world except the Shengen area of Europe.
Other plans are “E-F-ENP” plan for foreigners who plan to stay up to 12 months in France, the “ABC Plan” for foreign students in France, and a group travel insurance plan.
Travel insurance plans are not designed for people living abroad long-term. Therefore, if you are planning on living abroad for a long time, it would be better to get health insurance for expats.
Travel insurance plans from ACS are similar to Genki which focus more on health coverage rather than travel coverage.
Europax Plan
Targeted Group: Travelers to Europe
The Europax plan is inbound travel insurance for foreigners travelling to Europe (required insurance for Schengen Visa).
For anyone who is planning on traveling to Europe and is looking for short-term travel insurance (required insurance for Schengen Visa) for up to 3 months for visa purposes, the ACS Europax plan is an easy solution.
There are many advantages including:
- Medical coverage: This policy provides medical expense coverage within the Schengen area of up to EUR 30,000 with an excess of EUR 30 per period of coverage.
- Personal Liability Coverage: This policy includes personal liability coverage of up to EUR 4.575 million.
- Other coverage: The plan also covers repatriation assistance and a small amount of dental coverage.
- Price: The plan is cheaper than other options. For example, if you are a 40-year-old American traveling to Europe for a month, you would only need to pay 40 EUR, while other travel insurance could cost over 80 EUR.
If you are hospitalized for a covered illness or accident, ACS will directly pay the hospital. Otherwise, you are required to post claims with original documents by mail to their office in Paris, rather than allowing to claim by email like many competitors already offer.
However, please note that EUR 30,000 medical coverage might not be enough to cover a major medical event (after an accident for example). Also, keep in mind that this insurance can only be purchased before departure.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to apply for this policy if you would like to travel to your home country.
For whatever reason ACS doesn’t allow expats living abroad to purchase this policy when travelling home. The country of destination and nationality can’t be the same.
But on the other hand, considering that EUR 30,000 is the bare minimum for a Schengen Visa and there are no other options to increase the coverage, expats are probably not the target customer for this product.
Globe Partner Plan
Targeted Group: Worldwide traveler (except the Schengen area)
The Globe Partner plan is a global travel insurance plan for people travelling anywhere except the Schengen area of Europe.
- Medical Expenses: Coverage up to EUR 300,000 with no excess.
- Area of Coverage: Worldwide excluding your country of residence.
- Medical Assistance: Included
- Personal Liability: Coverage up to EUR 4.5 million
- Accidental Death & Dismemberment (AD&D): Coverage up to EUR 30,000
- Luggage Coverage: Up to EUR 1,150.
- Duration: The duration of this policy can be anywhere between 7 days up to a maximum of 12 months. It is possible to renew the plan after 12 months under the approval from the insurance company.
One of the best things about the Global Partner plan from ACS that it is cheaper compared to other similar travel insurance in the market. For example, if you are a 30-year-old from the UK traveling to Thailand for a month, the plan would cost you around 37.4 EUR.
However, WorldNomads would charge you 100.3 EUR for a similar product. In return, you get a far higher coverage from WorldNomads (5,000,000 EUR per trip) than ACS (300,000 EUR per year).
So, if it’s your first time traveling overseas this year and you want some affordable insurance for accidents and illnesses, getting insurance from ACS should be enough.
But if you want better coverage, it’s better to get WorldNomads.
In my opinion, the ACS Globe Partner plan is okay for many destinations out there. And the price is also good.
Please note that if you are travelling to a country within the Schengen area, it is better to choose the Europax plan. On the other hand, if you are traveling to many countries, both inside and outside of the EU, you should choose a country that’s outside of EU when buying their travel insurance.
In addition, the entire premium has to be paid upfront, it is not possible to cancel after departure, and there won’t be any refunds given in case you return home earlier than expected.
International Business Insurance Plans
For any organisation, ACS is able to provide business insurance solutions as well – Business Travel & Expat Company Insurance as well as the Repatriation Insurance plan.
The business travel solution is offered through Allianz Assistance and particularly designed for business trips and is for individuals rather than groups.
This plan includes medical expense coverage, repatriation, and accident coverage. It also comes with the option for travel inconveniences such as flight delays or loss of luggage.
The Expat Company Insurance solutions are diverse. ACS is able to provide group solutions for Medical, Accidental Death & Dismemberment / Invalidity, Assistance & Repatriation, Third-Party Liability, as well as Retirement solutions.
To obtain a quotation, you can use our online contact form.
Student insurance plans
Apart from the “Globe Partner” and “ABC Destination France” plans mentioned above, ACS offers two more insurance products for students – ARE, repatriation and public liability insurance, as well as a Housing Insurance, a home content insurance solution for students in France.
If you are a student and looking for travel medical insurance then you need to go for the Globe Partner plan, or the ABC plan if your destination is France.
The housing insurance provides coverage for your apartment and has several different plans, including Fire and Water damage, tenant liability, theft, or glass breakage, and can even be purchased for shared apartments.
The ARE plan is a simple Repatriation insurance plan for foreign students in France in case you need to be repatriated for health reasons.
Repatriation Assistance
Repatriation assistance is a stand-alone medical evacuation and repatriation plan.
This kind of plan is very rare among international medical insurance providers and gives a great choice to be covered in case your current insurance does not include it (perhaps if you are covered in your home country and you only want to be covered for evacuation and repatriation in the event you need medical assistance and would like to seek it back home).
The premium for this plan, EUR 150 worldwide excluding high cost countries, or EUR 250 for worldwide, is competitive. But it is only available until the age of 65.
Direct Billing and Direct Settlement
ACS provide a direct billing service for hospitalization for a covered illness or accident.
In case of an emergency, most insurance plans offered by ACS will be able to assist and possibly find a direct settlement solution with the hospital, as long as ACS has been informed immediately.
Claims Procedure
Claim procedures may vary according to your insurance plan. You might need to submit your claim online to the ACS claims center. Other claims have to be sent by actual mail to their head office in Paris, by providing the original invoices and medical reports.
For the South East Asia plans there is a network of hospitals where direct billing is available, meaning the insurance will pay directly to the hospital and no separate claim has to be filed. It makes sense to get the list of hospitals that do this when signing up.
In Thailand this includes most of the popular private hospitals. One downside is that it may take a little longer to ‘check out’ because the hospital needs to check first that the procedure you had done will be covered by ACS, which can be tedious if it’s just a short doctor’s appointment.
You may opt instead to just pay yourself and recover the costs by batch-filing your claims every 6 months or so.
Renewal
Unlike other international health insurance, ACS health insurance is always renewed on the 1st of January of each year. You can cancel your plan two months before the renewal date.
The annual increase in premiums seems to be similar to what other insurance companies charge.
Online Reviews
Unfortunately there are not many online reviews about ACS.
Generally speaking, people are okay with ACS’ coverage for the price. Many say that it is important to be aware of the fine print, but this is also the same as with any other insurer.
In addition, unless you can contact ACS to settle hospital bills directly, many people seem to complain about ACS’ claims procedure, in which they need to pay first and claim later, which can be very tricky.
However, it should be improved in the near future.
The good part is that ACS is regulated by French insurance laws which are usually more protective for the insured than insurance laws from other countries. For example:
- Community Risk Policies: ACS insurance plans have community risk policies. This means that there won’t be a particular increase on your annual premium when you have an expensive health problem. The risk is shared among the entire membership.
- Can’t Kick You Out: Once accepted, ACS does not have the right to kick you out of the plan because of your expensive healthcare costs.
- No Additional Cost: If you decide to pay on a monthly or a quarterly basis, ACS won’t charge you an additional 2-3% like many insurance companies out there.
Our site founder, Karsten Aichholz, had been insured with them for many years and happy with them. Their support is easy to reach without any language barrier.
Now, on to You
Overall, ACS offers a very good variety of different insurance solutions for expatriates. These options provide reasonable coverage for a generally good price.
They have a great plan for expats who are living in Southeast Asia. Their plan for other countries where the cost of medical treatment isn’t outrageously expensive is also good.
However, their plan for expats in Europe might not be competitive enough.
If ACS could update their plans in the future, they could be one of the first choices for insurance for expatriates anywhere in the world. You can get a quote using this form.
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