Transnational Health Insurance Schemes: A New Avenue for Congolese Immigrants in Belgium to Care for Their Relatives’ Health from Abroad?

What can immigrants do for non-migrant relatives in their home country who need healthcare they cannot afford? To answer this question, we first examine four existing methods that can be found in the existing literature: mobility, remittances, workers’ health insurance and diasporic health insurance. In the second part of the paper, we discuss an innovative strategy called “transnational health insurance” (THI). These insurance schemes are set up by immigrants in cooperation with a multitude of actors including health insurance companies in destination countries and healthcare providers in countries origin. THIs offer health coverage to non-migrant relatives in the home country based on a premium paid directly by immigrants to the insurance company in their country of residence. Analyzing the creation and implementation of Belgian-Congolese THIs, we discuss the strengths and weaknesses of these schemes in responding to the needs of both immigrants and their non-migrant relatives. The article concludes with a discussion on the specificities of THIs as hybrid forms of remittances.