The shape of global mobility is changing. Short assignments, cross-border roles and distributed teams now sit alongside the traditional expat model, supported by digital tools that make some roles less tied to one place. Yet, however much working arrangements change, the need for healthcare that feels familiar, trusted and easy to navigate travels with every employee. For employers, that raises the bar on the healthcare partners they choose to support their people, wherever they are in the world.
Global mobility is being reshaped by several forces at once: the growth ambitions of international businesses, demand for global talent, more flexible working expectations, and digital tools that make some roles less tied to one place. The result is a new fluid and dynamic era for global mobility.
It was a recurring theme at the Lockton Global Benefits Forum 2026, where delegates explored the challenges of supporting increasingly mobile workforces in a more complex global environment. What is clear is that global mobility no longer means a single long-term assignment. KPMG’s 2025 Global Mobility Benchmarking Report1 found that 70% of companies are now using short-term assignments, often as a lower-cost alternative to traditional long-term moves. Mobility in 2026 may mean shorter deployments, regional roles, frequent business travel, cross-border remote work, or employees whose personal and professional lives span more than one country.
For employers, this creates a clear upside. Skills move more easily, talent pools expand globally, and growth into new markets is supported with greater agility. Yet the more flexible mobility becomes, the more challenging it is to create a consistent employee experience. For employers, that makes mobility harder to manage; for employees and their families, it can make everyday life harder to navigate. Healthcare is often where those two pressures meet. Which is why the employee's healthcare experience must sit right at the heart of any business's global mobility strategy. That also changes what employers should expect from a healthcare partner. Funding treatment is no longer the whole job. The value lies in how a provider helps employees move through unfamiliar systems.
As Marcelo Mangueira, Director of Strategy, Product and Proposition at Bupa Global, put it during his fireside conversation with Nicola Banwell of Lockton at the Forum: “The role of healthcare, of an insurer, is no longer just to fund treatment, but to guide, prevent and simplify the journey end-to-end.”
Healthcare access redefined
For globally mobile employees, healthcare access is no longer just about whether treatment is available in a particular country or covered by a particular policy. It's about knowing where to start, being able to speak to someone who can explain the next step clearly and having confidence that your global healthcare policy is connected to your local experience wherever you are. This is where the idea of “Rooted nomadism” becomes useful. It captures a tension that many internationally mobile employees will recognise. Their lives and careers may move across borders, but their need for familiarity, continuity and trust increases when they enter a new healthcare system. Access becomes less about the existence of care and more about the experience of getting it. For employers supporting mobile workforces, the priority is to choose a healthcare partner that can help their people navigate unfamiliar systems with greater confidence and continuity.
The Connected Care experience
This is where Bupa Global’s Connected Care model is important. Connected Care combines digital access, clinical guidance, provider networks, care management and physical healthcare, so members are not left to move between disconnected services on their own. Digital tools can provide a familiar front door into care, particularly for members living or working in an unfamiliar country. However, digital access is most valuable when it connects to the wider healthcare journey, to local provider access, clinical expertise, claims support and treatment pathways. Without that connection, healthcare can still feel fragmented. For a member in a new country, that can mean starting digitally, being guided to the right support, moving into local treatment where needed, and feeling that each step is part of one coherent journey.
The shift to personalised, preventive care
Connected Care is a key part of the solution, but it sits alongside a wider shift. Employees are more aware of prevention and expect care that reflects their own circumstances. Healthcare itself is changing too. Advances in genomics, precision medicine, connected data and AI-supported clinical models are making it possible to identify risk earlier, tailor treatment more closely and support people before health issues escalate. Bupa Global's Healthcare Insights Report 2025 shows why this shift matters. Endocrine-related conditions including diabetes, obesity, thyroid and cholesterol disorders have seen claims costs increase by 97% since 2021, with diabetes treatment the biggest driver. These conditions generally require regular monitoring, medication management and earlier intervention, which means the traditional healthcare model, built around acute, episodic care, must evolve. (Bupa Global Healthcare Insights Report, 2025)
For globally mobile employees, this is particularly valuable. When people move between healthcare systems, personalised insight helps create continuity around the individual, so care does not feel as though it begins again every time they relocate.
A more grounded healthcare experience for mobile employees
For employers and providers, the real challenge is to improve the healthcare experience while managing the commercial realities around it. Costs are rising, employees are using their healthcare more often, and new high-cost treatments are changing what sustainable cover needs to look like. In that environment, the answer isn’t more services, more tools or more points of access. The more valuable response is to make healthcare easier to use and better directed, helping employees reach the right care sooner and giving clearer guidance when they are moving through unfamiliar systems. For globally mobile employees, this is where healthcare benefits become part of the wider mobility experience. A strong international plan matters, but so does the reassurance around it: knowing where to start, who to trust and how to stay connected to support as circumstances change.
That’s the promise of rooted nomadism. Healthcare systems will never feel exactly the same in every market, but we can help mobile employees and their families feel grounded wherever they are, with care that’s familiar, connected and trusted when they need it most.
Sources
1. https://kpmg.com/xx/en/our-insights/workforce/global-mobility-benchmarking-report.html