Medical Insurance

Use the search feature and look at forum discussions in the last two years that use the term.

You’ll find more on forum discussions than you’ll find at https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/trip-planning/travel-insurance

But look there too.

LATE NOTE Janet’s comment below is spot on. If you have any heath insurance other than Medicare, check your policy and contact the carrier.

Many seniors on this forum are of Medicare age and have Supplemental coverage above basic Medicare. Frequently the supplemental policies offer $50,000 in coverage abroad (lifetime benefit). Medicare will NOT cover abroad.

Ii you are not yet on Medicare and you have other private health insurance, again check your policy and contact the carrier.

While $50,000 may not sound like a lot, remember that U.S. heath care costs are insanely high and far above what is charged elsewhere in the world.

ANOTHER consideration. We never worried about insurance in our international travels until 2025 (in our early 70s). And then, our main consideration was the potential for a bicycle accident. I concluded that Rick’s advocacy for cancellation insurance was unpersuasive. And I concluded that coverage for foreign health care was not a real need, either. What I concluded was that emergency medical evacuation coverage was the right policy for us to get for multiple reasons:

1. Trip cancellation coverage is very expensive and you can cover that more cheaply with refundable flight and hotel reservations
2. Our Supplemental health insurance coverage would cover us in Europe quite adequately
3. The potential big ticket expense would be a medical flight from Europe to the US. That’s a six figure expense. And we had a friend who broke a leg in France and needed to stay in France for 7 weeks before she was able to fly home.
4. Med Evac coverage was really affordable. Just a little over $200 to cover the two of us. Special added bonus: it included an additional 50,000 coverage.

You'll find that insurance plans are state specific. So one size does not fit all.

In addition to fred's recommendation to use the search feature to learn of others experiences, good or bad, you can use a company like Squaremouth or Insure my Trip to compare plans available in your state.

While I always purchase travel medical insurance, I have never made a claim, so I'm hesitant to recommend a specific company.

The trip insurance store
GREAT service
https://tripinsurancestore.com/
Ignore the 1995 design

While I'm not sure if Rick has recommended a company I always get a separate policy that is just for health when traveling. I get Geoblue which is now Blue Cross Blue Shield Global Solutions. They have an app with a network of doctors that are covered in house and take their insurance amongst other things. You can buy as much coverage as you like. It's good for peace of mind in case of an emergency. Just remember it's always like other insurances where you get reimbursed for cost depending what it is. Two people with normal health is about $50-90pp depending upon age for 3 weeks.

Check your own health insurance. When I was working mine covered emergency care abroad and also evacuation (this is rare most company policies don't include it). Now that I am retired my medigap policy will cover up to 60K in medical expenses. On top of that we have a medical evaluation policy since that is the kind of expense that can break you -- 100K for evacuation would not be unheard of. AirMed and MedJet Assist are two companies that provide these policies. Now that we are very old, I also have an annual policy from Allianz for travel insurance. No idea how that works since it is our plan to never use it but a few years ago I had a trip policy form Allianz and they covered surgery and follow up care for a broken elbow; they paid the hospital and reimbursed me for follow up expenses. This mean my 10 week trip was not ended -- saving us the trip and them the money ending the trip would have cost.