My husband and I are traveling soon to Italy for 3 weeks. We are looking in to health insurance to cover us while we are out of the United States. Can anyone recommend a plan they have used? Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Posted by
Michigan USA
379 posts
I use these people for help with purchasing travel insurance
https://tripinsurancestore.com/
They really know their stuff and are very helpful
Posted by
Forest Grove, OR
11799 posts
So many policies out there! You might use this site, Squaremouth, to peruse options that meet your criteria. I have purchased polices through them several times mostly with an eye to covering delays and emergency/major medical like needing transport. (Our private plans cover us overseas when Medicare does not.) I now buy an annual plan that covers us everywhere and even for very long trips.
Christopher Elliott covers a lot of insurance territory at his site, https://www.elliott.org/ultimate-consumer-guides-smart-travelers/how-find-best-travel-insurance/
Posted by
Phoenix🌵
3099 posts
Do you need only health insurance? What about evacuation insurance? Comprehensive trip insurance for everything including cancellation or interruption?
If you only need medical, look at Geoblue. If you can't spend $100,000 for medical evacuation back to the US, look at Medjet. If you want comprehensive look at https://www.insuremytrip.com/ or https://www.squaremouth.com/ to help sort through policies.
I know the search function for the forum is clunky, but there are lots of posts with travel insurance information. We all have our favorites and dislikes. Read policies carefully. There are a lot of legalize pitfalls to look out for.
Posted by
OP
7 posts
Thank you. Will start looking at the suggestions tonight. I truly appreciate all the great information .
Posted by
NorthCarolina
1077 posts
It's trip insurance you need. A good policy covers health, airline issues, luggage issues, medical evacuation, etc. If you are able to get USAA, they have the best - Travel Insured. If not, and you're an AAA member, they offer a good policy through Allianz.
Also, Insuremytrip.com offers good comparison. Just be sure you are comparing apples to apples. My brother was killed in a wreck here in America while we were in Europe - we flew home last minute, all reservations and plans were canceled without issue and we were reimbursed for all losses.
Another time, my appendix ruptured one day before we were to go to Wyoming - all flights and all reservations were easily canceled without issue.
Our friend fell and broke her ankle in Germany and they flew her back home.
Trip Insurance is so important.
Posted by
OP
7 posts
We actually have USAA so I will check with them, as well. Thanks.
Posted by
Utah via SF Bay Area
368 posts
We were required to have health insurance on a recent trip to the middle of glorious nowhere in French Polynesia. We obtained it through American Express.
Posted by
near San Francisco
5476 posts
I'm evaluating insurance for my upcoming trips. My credit card (BofA Premium Travel Rewards) covers much of what I want and Kaiser covers me worldwide for urgent/emergency care. So I'm reluctant to pay for policies to duplicate what I have.
I've used Nationwide in the past to fill gaps and have checked USAA, expecting their coverage/cost to be better. I checked them again today and found Nationwide to be less expensive than USAA for medical (your question) and for the coverage gaps that I care about.
Note: these are each company's "basic" plans:
Nationwide Essentials: $75,000 Emergency Medical / $250,000 MedEvac & Repatriation
USAA Worldwide TP Edge: $10,000 Emergency Medical / $100,000 MedEvac & Repatriation
USAA has an interesting $150,000 benefit for "Political or Security Evacuation and Natural Disaster Evacuation" that I'll keep in mind in the future if I'm traveling to an earthquake prone area.