Travel insurance or trip insurance

I was in the US military at 18 where you learn you can't be afraid; no big deal; no need to be dramatic; but this company https://www.allianztravelinsurance.com/travel/insurance-101 is one of the most widely offered insurance that travelers buy for international travel to cover the things that might happen including up to $50k if you need to be evacuated :
When you buy airline tickets it seems that there is always a part before you checkout to add travel insurance,
I bought travel insurance for the 1st time after 16 trips abroad last year at the age of 48; and now all the time for peace of mind of protecting family if something happens

There are numerous issues here:

If something happens to you, and you need to get evacuated back to the U.S., then you need medical evacuation insurance.

If you are worried that you might have to cancel your trip at the last minute then you need trip cancellation insurance.

Go to InsureMyTrip and fill in the required information. It will give you a list of companies and policies that are available.

Also check your own insurance policy and see what it covers.

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Mike, what if any of those things happened while you were at home? If you had a heart attack -- do you have insurance to cover medical care? Check to see whether it would cover you in Italy. (Many plans cover out-of-area emergencies -- and Italy does have qualified doctors and hospitals. And translators.) In the past, I have paid medical expenses in Europe and then submitted bills for insurance reimbursement.
As for bad news -- as when you are at home, sometimes you drop everything and go to be with family, other times you may have to balance your own plans/needs/obligations with what you can add to your family's situation.
Think positive! Two weeks is a short time.

I also worry about something happening before my trip but you gotta live life and plan ahead based on everything going well. If stuff happens you just bite the bullet and deal with it.

Yes, insuremytrip is a great resource to get whatever you need, whether for yourself or thinking of cancelling if a family member was sick or died. If you get a comprehensive plan it will include both cancellation and evacuation pretty cheap.

I have often thought of that since my dad is going on 92. I think that is a personal decision as to whether you come home right away or finish your trip or cancel it. I suppose it would ruin your trip either way, right? If you stayed and knew family at home was suffering, it'd be hard to have a good time. The good news is that your trip is only 2 weeks, so it is pretty likely that won't happen.

Just an FYI- when I was looking for insurance for a trip I recall that getting a preexisting waiver (must buy soon after first booking) included my loved ones at home. My impression if I remember (I got the waiver so I didn't look too closely into it) was that they also fit into that waiver and therefore if they had some "change" in their health they may not be covered if something happen to them or I had to change my trip because of them had I not bought a policy with the waiver. Even a change in a prescription can be a "change" to ones health, and you likely wouldn't know if your family had a change or not.

I could be totally off, and could have misunderstood, but please double check it if you plan to buy a policy.

Mike,

Many "regular", domestic, health insurance policies (both individual and group) do not cover health care expenses when outside the U.S. Those that do often require you pay for the care at the time and seek reimbursement later.

Travel policies not only provide insurance for health coverage, they also provide for things such as trip interruption, lost luggage, medical and legal referrals, and numerous other things. It is well worth considering. Not to be commercial, but we've used Travel Guard and our one claim was handled very well. There are many companies in the field so do some comparison shopping.

Most travel policies have medical evacuation coverage. But they USUALLY will only evacuate you to the nearest hospital than can treat you. Again, not to be commercial, but there is a company named "Med Jet Assist" that has a number of different membership plans. Some on an annual basis and some on a per trip basis. It is NOT medical insurance -- just med evacuation coverage. As long as you are more than 150 miles from home they will fly you back to your home hospital in a medical jet with medical personnel.

For an individual of your age, you should be able to get coverage to suit your needs at a relatively low cost. Especially when compared to the cost of the trip. Just do some research.

To paraphrase an old American Express commercial, we don't leave for Europe without it.

I want to add on to what I wrote and my personal experience.

For years, I used Travel Guard. For my upcoming trip, they want $800 for travel insurance. That's a lot. I checked with my own health insurance and they will cover me overseas. They even have doctors and hospitals they are connected with so I wouldn't have to shell out much money. (Blue Cross Blue Shield).

For Medical Evacuation, I'm going to get an annual Medjet Assist policy.

That just leaves trip cancellation insurance. I'm using points to fly across the pond so if I need to cancel it may cost me a change fee but that's it. For shorter flights in Europe, I'll bite the bullet since they are cheap. I'm taking two tours but they come with insurance. All hotels can be cancelled. I carry on so I'm not concerned about lost bags.

For everything else, I figure my out of pocket costs would be less than the $800 that Travel Guard wants so I will go with my plan.

For you, being young, a policy won't cost you much. If you sleep better at night knowing you have it, then get it. If it will give you a better piece of mind and you will enjoy your trip more, then you have the answer.

Going to Budapest and CH in June.We pay about $250.00 using the Silver package with Travelguard.
With what it costs to go overseas and all that it involves,good grief, the $250.00 is cheap,and well spent $

Buy the travel medical insurance! Plenty of "horror stories" out there about folks who wished they had!

Have a look at this article: http://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/travel-insurance-questions/

I never bought travel insurance for my 2013, 2014 and 2015 trips to Europe. My Dad was admitted to the hospital a couple of days before my 2015 trip. He passed away while I was in Spain. I had to fly home early and due to no insurance I had to pay a $300 penalty to change my ticket. Now I always purchase insurance for peace of mind. Hopefully I don't need it but it gives me a sense of security.

One other not-so-pleasant thing to consider.
But I am now of Medicare eligible age and my mom is 89.
Make sure your evacuation coverage will not only evacuate you home, and that you have very high $$ level of coverage for that ( there is no oversight or regulations/limitations on how much you can be charged ) but that shipping of "mortal remains" is included. Unless you are okay with cremation, but many people are not.

Mike, you're only 33 (and I assume healthy). Aside from the very low probability of your "morbid" thoughts coming to pass, you really don't need to be this risk averse unless you have a some knowledge of a decent to good chance for cancelling a trip. The audience in the RS forums skews much older than you (and me), so they have different health needs and level of risk aversion...nothing wrong with that, it's not a criticism. I've never gotten travel insurance and I've traveled extensively (I would get it perhaps if I was hiking in some remote area of the world and risked injury, but not Europe). Figure out what you stand to lose money wise in the worst case scenario and proceed from there. If you have a lot of things prepaid (and they amount to several hundreds of dollars), then maybe consider some cheap trip insurance...if it's just an airline change fee, I would risk it because I think it's a small risk.

I have no known health problems. My grandfather is 95; he was in good health last time I talked to him; he could live to be 120 or he could die tomorrow.

We always get insurance when we travel out of the country... for our family of 4 we usually pay $200 or less (kids are free). I just worry about something catastrophic happening, and it gives me some peace of mind.

The last trip, on arrival in London, we had two canceled flights (fog!) and ended up needing to spend the night in London, never made it to Frankfurt (went to Munich instead) and were off of our plan for about 2 days until we synced back up in Vienna. I filed a claim with Travel Insured (great company, I get this insurance through my travel agent) - and I am about to get a check from them for over $1100. Pretty good deal considering the policy was only about $100.

I didn't think I would use it for something like that, I get more in case something really bad happens, but it was sure nice to have it for the delay!

Kim

Look at it a different way. Would you buy a 20k car and not full replacement insurance? Chances are you probably have a loan, and insurance is required by the bank (at least it is in CA). Why take the chance? Consider it a small price to pay for peace of mind.

My daughter and her family were suppose to be traveling to Mexico for Easter. Last week her husband fell on the ice and is still awaiting surgery to put his ankle back together. Luckily, they had purchased insurance and will be refunded thousands of dollars to be put towards a future trip.