So I have a very specific inquiry. My husband and I will both be quitting our jobs and moving our stuff into storage in a new state (where our families live) before we start our trip. We will therefore be without medical insurance after 30 days but we are only 28 with thankfully no major medical issues. We will be in Europe and uk (schengen)from sep 11-jan22 roughly. Then a week and a half in Florida before returning to the state of our families to find new jobs. Which travel insurance would best suit our need for almost five months of coverage while including major medical/accident? We plan to book many things last minute through airbnb so how should we estimate a solid travel cost? Will the insurance work through all the countries in Europe and the two weeks in Florida? Can I buy my plane tickets now and purchase trip insurance later? Any other things I am not thinking of? We definitely plan to purchase the insurance, but I just want to know if there is different advice due to the length of the trip and need for medical.
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23610 posts
You need to separate your insurance needs into two piles - medical and trip. My biggest concern would be medical. While you think you are young and health and will have no problems, things do happen. There was a recent posting from someone in your age range, with no insurance, having an emergency appendix removed in English. Go to insuremytrip.com to review various policies. Remember this insurance as to be primary because you do not have other insurance to fall back on. The second insurance is trip cancellation or interruption insurance. Unless you have prepaid a bunch of lodging and tickets, I would not worry about that type of insurance. IMO, that type of insurance is seldom worth it especially given your proposed trip. Also - since you are aware of the 90 days Schengen zone limitation, be sure to keep some record (receipts, etc.) of you time in and out of the Schengen zone so the 90 days does not get challenged.
Posted by
OP
Flagstaff
44 posts
Good ideas Frank! In order to make it easy on us we plan to spend the first six weeks exclusively in the UK and Ireland so the dates will be smooth and not so much back and forth. We definitely plan to have medical insurance of some type. We are not risk takers.
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
33760 posts
Good advice so far, aanda. Good luck with your new lives. Make sure you take at least 2 more days in the UK or you will come up short. Any portion of a calendar day in the Schengen area counts and with 134 days you need at least 44 days not in Schengen.
Posted by
Huntsville, AL, USA
8312 posts
I was looking into a bunch of websites last night about medical insurance for our two week trip to Canada. My wife's Medicare and her supplement are not applicable there. Many of the companies are giving all kinds of supplemental coverages on things that don't matter to us. I was primarily looking for medical coverage only. Check into http://www.medexassist.com/ to see if they meet your needs. Their medical coverages are higher than most of the all other companies. Young people can go for very reasonable costs as long as you stay off the hang gliders, ice climbing and other high risk activities.