Medical Travel Insurance

What country are you from.

We were pleased with Travel Guard.

My sister bought the policy that came with her Delta ticket - I believe it was Global Allianz. She was hurt, spent 1 night in Paris hospital emergency room, 4 nights in intensive care, and 2 nights in a regular room. They sent a travel nurse to accompany her home on the flight (in first class) as she needed a special apparatus for her lung injury. They covered everything. She had no cash outlay. They did an excellent job with all her communication. ( It was an amazing cultural experience, too.)

Before you purchase travel insurance you should check your supplemental Medicare policy. Many of the supplemental policies cover you. Also, some credit cards provide travel insurance benefits.

One thing to check in all policies is the repatriation clause. Not all of them will get you home.
I would also suggest you take a look at Medjet Assist for strictly repatriation insurance.

I have used Travel Insured and gotten an $1100 reimbursement when we were stuck in London due to flight cancellation and then had to re-route our trip for a day.

I also am getting a refund for a cruise I had to cancel next week due to a knee injury with Allianz. I have not filed that claim yet, but I have talked to them many times and I think it will be fine.

I would ALWAYS buy travel insurance... it is so inexpensive compared to the cost of the trip. I usually get it in case something catastrophic happens... I never even thought about our London thing happening, but it was sure nice to recoup that money!

Kim

I broke an elbow in southern France a couple of years ago in the 5th week of a 10 week trip. I spent 5 days in the hospital for surgery and then had follow up care in Paris including orthopedic specialist and physical therapy. I preferred to not be flown home for surgery or follow up (which of course was cheaper for the insurance company too). I had Allianz and they paid the hospital bill directly and later reimbursed me for the follow up care in Paris.

Our medigap policy covers 60 days of emergency care while traveling abroad for a lifetime benefit of 50K; this is pretty common in medicare supplemental policies so you should check to see what your policy covers. A doctor's visit and meds for illness is quite cheap in France, probably less than deductibles and co-pays on medicare/medigap but obviously a serious illness or injury would be more. Our cost for surgery and follow up care in France cost about $5000 which the insurance covered. In the US the same care would have cost nearly $50000 according. to my orthopedic surgeon here. The surgery to remove the wires and rods a year after the injury cost 3.5 times what the original French surgery and hospitalization had cost and it was done as an outpatient surgery here.

The big potential cost which is not covered by medigap policies but it covered by travel insurance is being airlifted home. AS in the earlier example, they put you in first class if necessary and provide a nurse who travels with you if necessary. We have an annual policy with medjet assist which provides this type service any time you are more than 300 miles from home and can be renewed to age 75. I have no idea how good it is as we have never used it, but if you go with the medigap policy to cover your emergency medical needs you should consider subscribing to this service to cover the most expensive part of a serious accident or illness abroad.

pat's question needs to be answered by OP.

IMGlobal is what I signed up with and they were accepted by French consulate for long-term visa.

Great site to compare: https://www.squaremouth.com/