VA and medical insurance

Any ideas on travel medical insurance he might qualify for?

"Qualify" as in get free/subsidized coverage while traveling (perhaps under the VA or Medicare coverage)?

Or, "suggestions for supplemental coverage you can purchase"?

We see a bunch of discussion over time here on buying travel insurance of various types - from trip cancelation to medical evacuation to emergency "normal" care while overseas and out of regular coverage areas. For some stuff, that's covered to a degree by credit cards (travel one usually) or by buying a traditional plan and those plans are often noted in those other threads.

How long are you/they traveling and are there day-to-day issues that would need to be covered vs the normal "bring your meds from home, and get a plan that covers urgent/emergency situations".

I am envisioning falling and breaking an ankle or appendicitis.. Might require hospitalization, surgery, etc. medjet is set for evacuation. I am thinking of less urgent/emergency matters where we have to pay, potentially, for care or treatment.

We are not of Medicare age yet, but we have Tricare which is the same in that it doesn't cover us overseas. We always buy trip insurance and up the medical portion just in case. If we have multiple trips planned for the year, we buy an annual policy through DAN, but otherwise we buy per trip insurance through USAA with their partner. If you have USAA, check their website for the link and check it out.

squaremouth.com sells travel policies online and I've read good things about the staff at tripinsurancestore.com who you can call and ask questions. If you're only looking for medical coverage and not to insure your trip costs then policies aren't too expensive.

Sheila,
You will find very few medical insurance plans, private or public (VA, Medicare, etc.) that cover you overseas. If you have a Medicare supplemental plan that includes it, you are lucky (rare, but possible). Of course, supplemental plans charge a monthly premium, as does Medicare part B and part D. Check out insuremytrip.com for comparison of your options regarding travel medical insurance. My guess is your SO doesn't pay any monthly premiums, with just Medicare Part A and VA coverage.
Best of luck with your search!

Judy, I'm on Medicare, but my private supplement insurance policy, which I've had for decades through my former employers, covers me overseas. Always has. And I believe the Blue Cross and United Health Care supplemental policies available here do as well. I'm not talking about advantage plans.

{edit} By covering, I mean the insurance will reimburse me for the costs I incur for medical care overseass, not that they will directly interact with the foreign care providers to pay bills.

Noting that VA is not insurance, it is a care provider. As I was told earlier this year when I went to get my card, it does not provide free care for non-service related problems (although discounted) and so I was required to give them my Medicare and private supplemental insurance information in case I ever want to use them. And they said they would bill Medicare and my insurance if I was being charged for something. Tricare-for Life (military retirees) does cover people worldwide.

stan--Oh how I wish we had Tricare for Life. My husband was too young for that program, so while he is a military retiree, we are not eligible for that. Hence, we need extra medical insurance for traveling.

Have you looked at GeoBlue and Allianz. You purchase for your travel dates; and is based on age and length of travel.

You also need to be aware that, even if insured, you will be presented with a bill before you leave the facility which you are expected to pay. Once that is done they do the paperwork for the insurance and you will receive a payment from the insurer (usually by mail) reimbursing you.

Since the original poster seems to have a military affiliation if you are a member of USAA you might check their travel insurance. I buy an annual policy from them that's a good value IMHO.

Before I started doing that I used "Insuremytrip.com" to research policies.

Also, yes for MOST things you will have to pay and get reimbursed. We did have a woman who had a significant issue on one trip and after we explained to the hospital that (a) she didn't have a credit card with a big enough limit and (b) her friends were not giving their cards the hospital got on the phone with the insurance provider and worked it out, so they got paid directly. I know of one other person who had to do this too when her husband had a heart attack and had to have emergency cardiac surgery in Mexico.

The trip insurance that USAA partners with does not allow for annual policies for residents of some states. WA is one of those, so when I buy an annual policy I use DAN.

Hi there, why don't you call medicare and ask if you have the international supplement that would BTW cover you for up to $50,000 in lifetime for overseas travel? I know many on the forum DO have that coverage, myself included. I called the Kaiser (my provider) hotline and asked questions, including getting them to email me details of the international coverage & hotline telephone number to call if there's a medical issue, which I carry with me when overseas. I also carry a Geotrekker annual insurance, because I like having extra medical insurance just in case.

I also fall under the Tricare & VA for my medical needs at home. I have a USAA account so when I travel I use thier travel insurance link/partner, Travel Insured.

For my Slow Travel in a few years I'll be using a different company for all my needs when I'm out of the country 10 months out of the year.

Safe Travels

If your husband was an officer, you might check out Military Officer’s Association of America’s (MOAA) EA+ program. Their policies have different levels of coverage but they include emergency transportation services as well as others.

Thanks all. He served for 2 years. Uses VA for appointments. Only has the hospitalization Medicare. Nothing else. While not ideal, stateside it has worked thus far. Seems a travel overseas medical insurance that does not require primary insurance (which he does not seem to have) is what I need to look for.

Patty--Thank you for that. We will take a look at that today.