Travel insurance is essential for your peace of mind. It can give financial protection to you and your loved ones from unforeseen events like accidents and illnesses. Travel insurance commonly covers lost luggage, trip cancellation, medical expenses, and some other kinds of losses that may transpire during travel.
Although we don’t like to think about it, there is always the possibility of getting into an accident or falling sick while on vacation. Such incidents do happen, so it is essential to have travel health insurance before you venture abroad.
Travel health insurance is particularly vital if you are traveling outside the US, where your health plan may not apply. Medicare health coverage does not extend beyond the US. So you need to buy travel health insurance to remain safe during your vacation.
Travel health insurance will pay for various medical expenses that you may incur while you are traveling outside the US. If you fall ill or suffer an accident during your travel, then the travel health insurance plan will pay for these events up to specified benefits limits.
Travel health insurance can cover the following costs:
● Doctor bills
● Ambulance services
● Medicines and drugs
● Lab tests, examination, X-rays, anesthetics
● Operating room and hospital costs
Travel health insurance may be offered as a part of a wider travel insurance plan. Such a plan may pay for other incidents that can happen during travel, such as baggage loss, emergency medical evacuation, trip delays, and trip cancellation. In short, a travel insurance plan covers a wide range of things that can go wrong during your trip.
Primary and Secondary Health Coverage
Your travel health insurance could be either primary or secondary. If you buy a primary plan, it will pay before your health plan does. If you possess health insurance and purchase secondary travel health insurance coverage, then your health insurance will have to pay benefits first.
Your health plan may not provide coverage outside the US. So, when you are abroad, your secondary travel health insurance will become your primary coverage since you do not have any other kind of health insurance.
Medical Evacuation
In addition to travel insurance, you also need emergency medical evacuation insurance. This insurance plan pays so that you can get to the closest medical facility or even go home based on the condition you are in. This is important medical coverage that you should have especially if you are on vacation in a remote area of the world.
The US State Department states that medical evacuation to America from other countries costs over $50,000. In fact, medical evacuation from the most remote locations can cost $250,000. So, you should have medical coverage to protect against such an unforeseen event.
Bottom Line
Given the many things that can go wrong during your travel, you must get travel health insurance.