Health insurance for international travel from us to France

What exactly is your question ?

Nobody here knows what sort of policy you carry so you’d get better answers by calling UHC yourself

It depends on your plan. There are numerous options. Call UHC.

My apologies for the vague statement. I know that our policy covers what is referred to as emergency services which include transportation to a medical facility, care for emergency situations, etc. And I’m fine with that. I’ve read the general steps such as dialing 112, or other numbers for accidents, police, etc. and I have found a list of hospitals in Paris. While we don’t expect to need these services, I just want to be prepared in case we do.
Maybe this is still too vague a question, but I am interested in any other tips about information required to get healthcare services, any tips about the process, or other relevant advice. Thank you.

with health insurance coverage from UHC

This is your NORMAL health insurance? Or TRAVEL insurance you've bought specifically for the trip?

I'd be very cautious thinking my standard US insurance was going to function well out of the US. Not just function well, but also be easy to use and/or get reimbursed for any costs at foreign hospitals. In my experience, any reason to not pay up is embraced by the regular US insurance companies.

Look into stand-alone TRAVEL insurance, and also, as a backstop, some travel credit cards provide a nice extra level of support outside the US. A biggie for some folks to have is usually "evacuation" coverage. While France is pretty great to visit, you may not want to be holed up there in a hospital for months on end recovering, but a medical flight home would be expensive and even a challenge to coordinate.

We're going to exceed the 90-day default Schengen limit this summer, so we need to get medical insurance that satisfies French long-stay visa requirements. The cost range for visa-sufficient insurance is staggering: quotes ranging from $16,000 apiece for 12 months on the high end to $600 apiece low end for 70-year-olds. We chose the low end. Duh. (The company warrants that its coverage will satisfy visa requirements.)

Yes, this is my normal UHC PPO healthcare plan. But I understand your advice. I’ve looked at Consumer Reports and they recommend three possible insurance plans for international travel. They are Generali Global Assistance, GeoBlue, and International Medical Group. I’m looking at each of those and will buy some coverage for my trip. Thank you.

My tip is don't assume that French health care providers are going to bill your foreign insurance company directly, or will communicate with them in English other than through you. You may have to pay a bill yourself, and then file for reimbursement from your insurance. Which means keep documentation. All good to discuss with UHC, if you can find someone who understands what you want.

Since you're looking for TRAVEL insurance too, pop over to the RS Covid & Travel forum here. You'll see recent posts by folks on their travel insurance tips and experiences. Also, consider a broader search of the forums, as good travel insurance often does equally well in Spain, Germany, Italy, etc., and maybe lurking in those RS forums instead.

I see it pop up as a topic enough to know it is pretty common in the various country forums.

You can use the search function in the upper left corner of the home page and search through other forum threads on insurance. You may learn things you never considered. I sure did.

From going through that process myself and putting out my own query, I ultimately decided to get a medical evacuation policy for our trip later this year and not cancellation or health coverage. It wasn’t that pricey (under $200) and does include some health insurance, as well. Also, our Medicare Supplemental coverage provides 50k for health insurance for stays under 90 days.

Since we will be biking for 12 of our 30 days in France and Germany and since medical evacuation is the really expensive potential item, that made sense to me in the end. Trip cancellation coverage (ridiculously expensive) and other separate health insurance did not.

But we all have our own risk tolerances and concerns. Do you have an insurance agent with whom you can consult?

We’ve never bought any trip insurance to speak of before, other than flight insurance and we’ve been to Europe in 2015, 2018, 2023 and 2024 (plus earlier trips when we did not have concerns about aging and health)

the first thing to do is figure out how much our regular insurance covers. Before we were retired our work insurance covered emergency care abroad athough we never had to test it. Now our Medigap policy covers up to 60K lifetime for emergency care abroad but we now have an annual policy as well that covers us for up to 90 days each trip. Note that if you have a policy that covers 60 days but are taking a 70 day trip you will need travel insurance for the whole 70 days. They do not cover the first 60 days of a longer trip.

Because the biggest expense is likely to be medical evacuation to the US (if you are an American resident) and many travel insurance policies don't cover that (they get you to the nearest hospital so read the fine print carefully) having a medical evacuation policy like medjet assist is prudent. We know someone who had to mortgage their home to fly their daughter home after a serious accident in Egypt. for years we relied on our regular insurance for emergency covered and had a medjet policy. Now we have an annual policy as well as a medical evacuation policy.

You can afford to go without travel insurance if your regular policy covers travel emergencies. I think we probably paid for a trip ;with what we saved by not having insurance for decades of travel. Now in our 80s we feel the risks are greater so we buy the expensive coverage.

IMHO insurance for trip loss or luggage makes no sense if you. travel a lot. If that is the only reason you need insurance becasue your health insurance covers medical then IMHO these are risks you can take -- the loss is finite and manageable whereas medical care and especially medical evacuation can be financial disasters.

The one time we used our travel medical insurance the company paid the hospital directly; with your home insurance you probably have to pay and be reimbursed which is cumbersome.

Thanks everyone for such great feedback regarding insurance when traveling outside the US. Our health insurance does not include emergency evacuation, so for that reason alone I think it makes sense to buy travel insurance that would include coverage for that type expense.

Just make sure you read the evacuation coverage carefully. In some policies, evacuation means evacuation to the nearest treatment facility - that is, ambulance to the nearest local hospital. If what you want is to be transported home to the US when stabilized, that language says something like evacuation to the facility of your choice.

Important distinction! Many thanks.

We buy GeoBlue for our international travel insurance. We never needed it until last year while in France. We'd left Paris and arrived in Rennes via train when my husband needed urgent care (non life threatening) immediate medical care. We tried to explain our situation to our rental car guy who was compassionate and tried to point us in the right direction. The facility he sent us to couldn't help us and they directed us to a very large medical facility/hospital campus where we were turned away and sent to another facility several miles away, which I would describe as the equivalent of urgent care in the US.

The doctor spoke English and offered wonderful care. We paid cash for our facility bill and separate doctor bill. We received very detailed hard copies of the bills to submit when we got home. We then had to go across town to a pharmacy where we paid cash and received a detailed receipt. Overall I think the total was about $100, far less than the insurance policy cost, but what if it had been a hospital stay emergency? I guess everyone has to decide for themselves their risk tolerance.

It's hard to know how to best prepare; and you feel quite vulnerable when you are in need of help and not sure where to go. I realized we probably could have called GeoBlue at some point for a suggested facility, but at the time we were just trying to figure things out as best we could, and didn't think of it. We were reimbursed very quickly after we filed. If you are concerned about medical evacuation, you may want to look into MedJet.