Homeowners Insureance

Travel Health Insurance Coverage  By: Kent Pinkerton

Health insurance while traveling to foreign countries is an often-neglected area. Falling ill or getting injured during international travel on business or pleasure can be an extremely traumatic affair. You are far away from home in an alien land, unsure of the medical facilities available and probably not carrying enough money. You may want to be evacuated and taken home. The potential financial burden could be overwhelming and worrisome.

To avoid this dilemma, wise travelers are prepared by carrying health insurance coverage. Check to see whether your regular health insurance takes care of medical costs in other countries. If it does, what is the extent of your coverage?

You can purchase travel insurance with global coverage or coverage for specific countries for a period of five days to three years. There are no age restrictions, and single trip or multiple trips can be covered. Multi-trip coverage includes all of your travel plans. For a nominal increase in the fee, your coverage can include hazardous sports activities. Coverage for children may be free in some plans.

Decide what type of coverage you require. If you are traveling alone, there is no point in taking out a family policy. If you are not intending to participate in hazardous sports you will not need that coverage. If you have a pre-existing medical condition, it is essential to check that it is covered.

Carry your medical records with you if possible. Hospitalization, ambulance services and prescription drugs should be included in the package. If you have a serious pre-existing medical condition, the evacuation policy may be advisable. For travel to Canada, insuring with a Canadian company has advantages. Also, remember that international travel health insurance does not cover health insurance in your country.

What should you always have but never want to use? Why insurance, of course!

That’s true isn’t it?

But there are some types of insurance that most people forget to even consider. How about travel insurance? You put together a large sum of money for a great vacation, everything is paid for and an earthquake strikes just after you land, destroying your resort destination. Or a fire damages the cruise ship you’re going to board the next morning. I don’t know about you, but I work hard for my money and I don’t want to see it just go up in a puff of smoke! You don’t need your day ruined any more than it already is. Insurance can pay you back for all those expenses from air fare, to hotel rooms, meals, transportation, the cost of the trip itself as well as the extra expense of changing your return flight and heading back home.

But have you given consideration to other forms of travel related insurance you may need with regard to your vacation? What happens if you or a member of your party has a heart attack while in a foreign country? Will you be able to pay for the medical bills? some families have literally been bankrupt because they did not have any insurance to cover these types of expenses.

What happens if you take a vacation on a cruise ship and have that heart attack? There may be a doctor on board the ship but it doesn’t have the hospital that you may desperately need to survive. Evacuation insurance can pay for a private air ambulance or even a helicopter to fly you to immediate medical care. Don Causey, the president of Angling Report, received a serious injury when a large tree limb fell on their vehicle in Africa. He had to be flown back to the United States in a private emergency air evacuation, The transportation bill itself was $122,822! And because he had no insurance to cover the evacuation, he had to pay that fee up front before he could even be evacuated to needed medical help back home!

Don’t make the same mistake in putting all of your money just into the vacation itself. It only takes a small amount to protect that investment from the vagaries of life that can strike when you least expect it. Check out your own policies to see where you are covered. Then take a look at the various kinds of additional insurance that you can get for medical, dental, trip cancellation, evacuation, lost baggage, lost prescriptions or anything else that can ruin your trip that you are not already covered for.

Travel insurance can make your vacation or trip more enjoyable and comfortable because you know you are as prepared as possible for unexpected problems that can destroy it all.

by Lee MacRae