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Health Insurance For Travel

from: TRL

Obtaining health care in some parts of the world can be tricky. Some hospitals won't provide any treatment or won't allow a patient to be discharged until the hospital has received a guarantee of payment. Such guarantees are commonly provided by travel insurers, in conjunction with assistance providers, but rarely by other insurers or managed care plans.

This means you'll have to pay in advance. If using a credit card, the hospital must accept foreign credit cards and your card must have a sufficient credit limit. In addition, traveling from your foreign vacation spot to a place with higher quality medical care or to return home where your regular insurance is accepted may be difficult.

Medical evacuations are tricky to arrange. All air ambulance providers are not equal. Local authorities may have financial ties to certain evacuation companies.

Medicare almost never covers care received in a foreign country. Employer-sponsored plans often limit overseas coverage to emergency care only. Emergency medical evacuation is almost never covered. You might want to check with your home health policy before you travel and before you buy travel insurance.

If you have a passport, reference this paragraph on page 2:

"HEALTH INSURANCE. Persons considering foreign travel should determine what health insurance coverage, if any, they require while outside the United States. Medicare does not cover health care costs outside the United States and its territories, except under limited circumstances in Canada and Mexico."

Travel health insurance may be purchased with three components. Most travel insurance products offer all three or two of the three.

*Medical Assistance Benefit

*Supplemental health/accident insurance

*Medical Evacuation

A medical assistance benefit gives you 24/7/365 access to a company that will arrange an evacuation for you with a creditable evacuation company or through their medical personnel can help assure that you're getting appropriate treatment locally. They can provide the guarantees needed for hospital discharge and may also help with other travel related problems such as legal troubles, lost passports or credit cards.

Supplemental health/accident insurance generally pays for doctor and hospital bills. Sometimes it will pay for dental care and medications. Depending on when travel insurance is purchased, medical problems from pre-existing conditions may also be covered.

Medical Evacuation can be expensive, $50,000 or more from a remote location. In addition to the coverage, you'll want assistance arranging an evacuation.

Trip Cancellation Insurance

Trip cancellation/interruption coverage protects you financially in the event you have to cancel or interrupt your trip for medical reasons. For example: you purchase a $5,000 cruise but can't go because of personal illness or illness in the family. Depending on when you cancel, a significant portion of the $5,000 may be non-refundable. Trip cancellation/interruption insurance will reimburse you.

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