My wife & I are planning to do some overseas traveling on our own. What do people recommend about obtaining health/medical insurance when travelling overseas? When I previously travelled overseas, my company covered me as an employee., so I was never concerned. Medicare specifically says they do not cover medical problems outside the US. Are there companies that offer short term health/medical insurance, and who are they? Thank you.
Posted by
Central Connecticut, USA
1103 posts
Are you Medicare eligible? Note that Medicare Advantage plans typically cover emergency treatment overseas.
Posted by
Wyckoff, NJ, USA
7885 posts
Posted by
NorthCarolina
1062 posts
if you have access to USAA, we love their policies - best price and coverage. AAA also has a great policy. Also, check out insuremytrip.com. We like Allianz, Travel Insured International, and TravelGuard.
Posted by
Tucson
4183 posts
Take a look at this RS article, Do I need travel insurance? Click on the links to 2 major companies in the article to see what they have to offer.
I always use Travel Guard. I switched to them because they will provide coverage if I fly from someplace that's not my home town. Other companies did not.
I also like that if you get the coverage quickly enough after making the first payment on your trip (often for the flight), coverage for preexisting conditions is included.
Posted by
Atlanta
5196 posts
Most travel insurance policies cover a little bit of everything including medical coverage and medical evacuation. However, the devil is in the details and a careful reading of the policy is highly recommended. For example some require you to pay the bill and seek reimbursement, and many of them will only evacuate you to the nearest hospital that can treat you. We had one claim with Travel Guard. They required documentation of course, but nothing that was unreasonable. Had a check in ten to twelve days if memory serves correctly.
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area
5697 posts
If you are not yet Medicare eligible, a number of Medicare Supplement (Medigap) plans cover a certain amount of emergency medical treatment outside the U.S. -- I have plan G, which does.
Posted by
OP
6 posts
Thank you to all for the travel insurance insights.
Posted by
Monterey County, CA (formerly Verbania Italy-Lago Maggiore)
1640 posts
When we moved to Europe we needed a long term health insurance policy. IMG has a couple policies that allow you to pick coverage and deductible for up to a year, but renewable. World nomads sells policies for up to six months. If you are most concerned with medical and evacuation coverage, these are reasonably priced as they don’t include trip canceltion, etc., etc.