THE FAMILY HEALTH FILES- Brought to you by privawell.net

If you're managing a chronic condition — diabetes, asthma, a heart condition, a thyroid disorder — moving countries is a fundamentally different challenge than it is for someone in good health. You can't just restart. There's a baseline. There's a treatment history. There's a relationship with a specialist that took years to build. In this episode, James and Claire cover what a complete chronic co...

Children's healthcare abroad catches expat parents off guard more than almost anything else. Adults can advocate for themselves. Children need someone to do it for them — in a system the parent is also still finding their feet in. In this episode, James and Claire cover how paediatric care is structured differently across countries (dedicated paediatrician versus GP-led, the German Gelbes Heft ver...

Most healthcare abroad is routine. But when something serious happens — a hospitalisation, a specialist diagnosis, a procedure that can't wait — the gaps in the system become much harder to manage. In this episode, James and Claire cover emergency versus planned serious care, how referral systems work differently across countries (and why bypassing them can cost you even with insurance), how to fi...

Most expats have some form of health insurance when they move. The problem isn't a complete gap. The problem is assuming the policy does something it doesn't — and finding out at the worst possible moment. In this episode, James and Claire cover the four types of policy that catch expats out: employer plans that are local-only, travel policies masquerading as long-term cover, the EHIC and what it...

A new doctor has maybe fifteen minutes with you. They're not reading a decade of records in that window. They might scan the medication list, note the major diagnoses, and move on — and all the context that matters gets lost. In this episode, James and Claire explain why bringing the documents isn't enough, and how a one-page medical summary can do more for your first appointment than a folder ful...

Everyone remembers the moving boxes. Almost no one thinks about their medical records until they're sitting in a new country with a new doctor who has nothing to work with. In this episode, James and Claire cover exactly what to collect before you move: medications and current prescriptions, vaccination records, anything chronic, recent lab results and imaging, surgical history, and anaestheti...

Vaccination records are the medical document most likely to exist only on a small piece of card — and most likely to get lost in a move. When your child starts school in a new country and the admissions office asks for proof of vaccinations, "we had everything done, I'm sure of it" is not an acceptable answer. In this episode, James and Claire cover the vaccination records problem th...

The same medication can have ten different brand names across ten different countries. Some things you buy over the counter in Germany require a prescription in Australia. And if you're on a controlled substance — ADHD medication, anxiety medication, strong pain relief — moving countries can mean months without access if you don't plan ahead. In this episode, James and Claire cover the med...

Blood test results come back as pages of numbers, abbreviations, and reference ranges — and the doctor has usually moved on before you've had time to ask a single question. In this episode, James and Claire break down the three panels that appear in most routine blood tests: the complete blood count, the metabolic panel, and the lipid panel. What each marker actually measures, what the numbers...

That first doctor's appointment in a new country is one of the most disorienting experiences of expat life. A system you don't understand, a doctor who doesn't know you, and a medical history you're trying to reconstruct from memory. In this first episode, James and Claire walk through the things most expats learn the hard way: why your medical history matters more when you move th...