travel and medical insurance

Rachel, I have never bothered with trip cancellation insurance, I do not prepay for hotels,, just a deposit, usually only a cc number and if I cancel within a few days no penalty anyways. Airfare I can rebook. I always get lots of medical insurance, being sure to have a repatriation clause included( to bring you or your body home). I use travelguard or something like that, I just go to a broker here in town,, costs me about 100 bucks for 3 or 4 weeks.

We too don't get cancellation insurance, but we do now get medical - through Insuremytrip.com

I also use insuremytrip.com to compare policies. You can choose the amount of coverage you want. Last year I did get reimbursed for some emergency medical expenses. I buy insurance primarily for the medical coverage. If you will be renting a car you can get that covered as well. I just returned from a trip planned with 2 friends. One of them had to cancel. Because it was for a reason covered by her travel insurance, she was able to be reimbursed for everything she had paid for up front - apartment deposits, train tickets and airfare. I understand that airlines will give someone a credit, but that must be used within 12 months of the original ticket purchase. Not everyone can take advantage of that. The Insurance can also cover a change fee if you have to cancel for a covered reason and you reschedule your flight to another time. That fee is often more than the insurance cost.

If you have an American Express card, you can get travel medical insurance through them very reasonably. They ship you back home dead or alive if necessary. In order to cover preexisting conditions you need to take the insurance out a few weeks before your trip and you can cancel it when you get back home. It kicks in when you're a certain number of miles from home; I've forgotten exactly how many but seem to remember it was around 30 or so. I've used them but had no claims so I don't know how flawlessly the system works.

At insuremytrip.com you can compare lots of different policies so you can get just the coverage you need. Unless you will have unrefundable costs beforehand, I wouldn't bother with trip cancellation insurance. It will only cover those types of costs. You should have medical insurance, and med evac insurance to get you home in an emergency. My brother-in-law once had to fly to Costa Rica to accompany his mother, who had gotten sick and needed to be airlifted to the US. The family had to pay $30,000 up front for the air ambulance - no insurance.

I have a membership in Medjet Assist. They'll fly you from any hospital in the world home to the hospital of your choice. Many policies have "medical necessity" requirements before they'll evacuate you. Medjet Assist doesn't. Details are here: http://medjetassist.com/

Rachel Good advice from all of the previous posters! 3 other considerations: 1 - Medicare does not provide medical coverage outside of the US. So medical insurance is essential. 2 - In order to get Coverage for Pre-Existing Medical Conditions, you usually must buy travel insurance within 2 weeks of purchasing the first component of your trip. 3 - Most travel insurance companies let you add on additional coverage as you pre purchase other trip components. Therefore, you don't have to guess the amount of the pre paid trip cost. Bobbie

The last time I talked about insurance here I got burned, but here goes, again. I'm nearly seventy-two and my wife will be sixtly-five in a few weeks. We just finished a forty-six day train journey from Istanbul to Amsterdam using convertible carry-on bags. We did not nor will we ever buy any kind of travel insurance. We are in reasonably good health for our age and paranoia does not move us to purchase unnecessary insurance. I can see if a person is indeed infirm in some way they might consider insurance, just in case. I'm not saying we don't get sick. We carried some kind of very low grade flu or cold on most of the trip. I bought some paracetamol to supplement a few other drugs we took along and that was all we needed. Several years ago I had to visit a doctor on the Isle of Islay and wasn't charged anything for the visit or for the Amoxicillin. My advice regarding medical insurance is that you visit your doctor before you leave and get a few prescriptions for things like Amoxicillin, Naproxin, and whatever else the doc might recommend. Just don't go out and buy insurance because you think you might need it.

But illness is not the only concern. Healthy or not, anyone can have an accident. The additional cost of a purchased-last-minute, first class seat (because you must have space to, say, elevate a casted leg) to get home would be huge. The right travel insurance can help with that. And since many people like me travel with a strict budget in mind, there might be no additional resources to use for such a cost.

I would get med evac insurance but as for insurance for illiness, my health insurance here would cover everything. Check with your insurance here to see if they would cover illness, when I checked with mine they do and then sent me a whole list of drs., and hospitals I could use.

I agree with Nancy. Accidents happen to anyone, no matter how healthy they are. You can also get ill, regardless of normal good health. Some illnesses can wait until you get home, but some things have to be tended to right away. I became ill in Germany last year and I HAD to be treated right away. My travel insurance covered the doctor appointment, tests and prescriptions. Don't assume that just because you have coverage in your home country you will have coverage outside of it. If you only want to be covered medically it is a minimal cost.

If this happens to apply to anyone here - one thing to check with any policy is if it will cover mental/emotional problems such as bi-polar/manic depressive disorder. Most, if not all, companies won't. Another example of insurance company prejudice against mental disorders.

What risks to take versus cost of insurance coverage for potentially very large expenses? I am unwilling to go bare regarding medical and evacuation coverage. Once that hurdle is met, then it's marginally more expensive for additional coverage such as trip cancellation, etc. What are are out-of-pocket expenses such as non-refundable deposits, pre-paid hotels, and the cost to re-book airline tickets assuming I am still able and willing to take the original trip within 12 months of purchase? With that total in mind, how much am I am willing to absorb on the outside chance of something bad happening? To help answer this question, check websites such as insuremytrip.com and plug in data to learn what insurance coverage from various companies is available.

@Monte - You are lucky all your illnesses have been treatable with OTC and meds you take with you. A couple I know here in Columbia recently returned from an interrupted European trip. Several days into the trip the husband developed what was originally diagnosed as a clot but turned out to be a staph infection. He was hospitalized for 5 days in Vienna and was required to make a $4000 deposit before he was admitted. Fortunately they had purchased medical insurance since medicare doesn't cover OOC. When the insurance company faxed a lettter of guarantee to the hospital, - the deposit was immediately credited back. Total hospital charges came to just under their 10K policy max,
He was rleased on the 6th day with the proviso he be flown home immediately and in first class. His wife was also put in first class since he needed to be "accompanied". The insurance covered the costs related to the upgrade and the flight change. Sometimes luck runs out. This couple's <$200 investment paid off well.

I agree that illness insurance is absolutely necessary unless you are very wealthy with liquid assets - accidents can happen anywhere. Even if someone else is at fault and liable for the costs, those costs still have to be paid at the time care is rendered. I've never bothered with trip cancellation insurance, and I don't think I would unless I was purchasing a very expensive pre-paid trip (over 5 or 6 thousand).

Elaine, We have some prescriptions too besides those that are daily pills. Some for pooper stopper and some for pain. Our next trip will probably be to Ukraine next year, and we won't be getting any kind of insurance for that one either.

Monte, I think we all value your view on insurance because it shows another side to the OP. So we're not trying to "burn" you when we disagree. I have to ask-do you forego fire insurance on your home because you don't burn candles? I think it all comes down to your comfort level, and how much you are willing to risk. I bought a one week health policy from insuremytrip.com for $36. Didn't need it, but the peace of mind was worth the cost. An earlier post mentioned posting a deposit of $4000. If you don't have easy access to money like that, you should consider a low cost health policy.

I probably should have added that we also take a few bandages and anitbacterial ointment.

I also take OTCs, prescriptions, bandaids, neosporin, laxatives, antidiarheals, pepto and benadryl. But what I don't take is access to an extra 4000 for a hospital deposit or the tens of thousands I've been told it costs to be medivac-ed home.
I just try to prepare a little for the unexpected. Unlike you, I just don't have deep pockets stateside to draw upon.

The reason you get burned is that you take an unreasonable, unsupportable position and expect everyone else to agree to that position. As long as you are comfortable with going it, then there is no reason for you to change. But for the average traveler with average resources it is very smart to have extra insurance to cover medical evacuation with a catastrophic illness/accident. The risk is low and premiums are low. Travel insurance or cancellation insurance is a different issue. Tends to be expensive for the amount that is covered. We have never paid for travel insurance and, by now, the premiums saved from pass travel would cover any future losses so it is unlikely that we would ever take it in the future. So I recommend medical insurance - yes and trip cancellation insurance - no.

I just searched insurance policies for a future trip and learned that the additional cost of a policy which includes a cancellation clause versus a basic medical only policy was less than two percent of the out-of-pocket expenses (non-refundable deposits, ticket change fees and the like). We actually had to cancel a trip due to a medial problem and the insurance proved valuable at that time.

We got travel insurance, CSA, as we were going on a walking tour in Tuscany and had to have it as a condition of the tour. Even though I have medical insurance, it doesn't cover evacuation if need be. Also, one usually has to pay upfront for medical costs and then wait to be reimbursed. Turned out my travel companion had an accident the day before departure of the start of our trip. Were we relieved that we had insurance... covered airfare, vaporetto passes, train tickets, and entire cost of our walking tour. The claim agent just called to ask my preference for accepting airline credit or having insurance cover... I chose to forego the airline credit and get funds back via insurance. So... long story short, insurance worked out for me. I got it through www.insuremytrip.com

Oops, I actually got our travel insurance through: www.tripinsurancestore.com They are very helpful, only deal with a few companies, and you can either email or phone for info. They also got in touch with me before our trip. After my friend's accident, I was able to get info from them on what to do for claim.

When people suggest to take out medical insurance before travelling abroad they are not thinking about catching a cold/flu or even food poisoning. They are thinking about the risk of having an accident. The risk of running into a major incident that can befall anyone no matter how healthy or frail at the outset, an incident far beyond antibiotic ointment and Tylenol (which should still be in your suitcase even with travel medical insurance. These days the medical cost associated with hospital stays and repatriation easily run into 5 or 6 figure numbers. It is not unusual to be in the same league as a major house fire. The difference between a house fire and an accident while travelling is that the risk for an accident is probably higher! How many of you would suggest to anybody to skip fire insurance on your own house?!?