What you need to know about medical coverage for your next trip.
There are two types of travel insurance: coverage for your trip (financially and your belongings: trip cancellation, trip interruption, lost luggage, etc.) and coverage for your health (ER or doctor visits, emergency medical evacuation). When I was younger, I rarely purchased travel medical insurance. That was before crashing my mountain bike in Malaysia and cutting my foot on my surfboard in Costa Rica. Now I don’t leave home without it. Why? I want access to affordable medical care if I get sick/hurt overseas and I want a medevac option if I’m ill/injured and prefer treatment back at home.
No one wants to imagine being sick or injured on vacation, but if the worst happens, it pays (literally) to be prepared. Medical travel insurance can save you hassle, time, and money, as well as offer you peace of mind if you encounter health problems while traveling. Not surprisingly, the pandemic has made things more complicated, with new policies specifically addressing travelers’ concerns about Covid-19. Here are things to keep in mind when purchasing travel medical coverage.
Be aware many medical policies exclude pandemics and epidemics. That said, some insurers are offering Covid-19 coverage. Every policy is different, so it is important that you always, always, ALWAYS read the fine print. In addition to Covid-19-related occurrences, items like maintenance healthcare, pre-existing conditions, pregnancy, optical, dental, and vaccinations are often not covered. So it’s paramount you carefully review the coverage documents and ask the insurance company questions if the terms aren’t clear.
Who needs travel medical insurance?
Who needs travel medical insurance? Anyone who isn’t covered by regular medical insurance for emergency medical care when traveling (think G.I. issues to sprained ankles to jellyfish stings). More specifically:
-Anyone whose regular health insurance/HMO doesn’t pay for services outside the U.S. There was a time when most private health insurance—and most HMOs—covered you (and provided emergency medevac assistance) wherever you went, but that’s no longer the case. With cutbacks in benefits in recent years, many standard health insurance programs will no longer cover medical bills in foreign countries. Some travel plans will assist you in finding an adequate hospital where you can receive proper care in your native language, sparing you a potential healthcare horror story.
-Anyone who wants a medevac option if she is ill/injured and prefers treatment back at home. Ambulance and medically-equipped plane transfers, even short ones, can costs tens of thousands of dollars.
-Any senior dependent on Medicare. Medicare will not pay for anything outside the U.S. Even if you have a Medicare supplement that nominally covers foreign travel, benefits are so meager you probably want additional insurance.
-Anyone traveling to certain countries. Cambodia now requires tourists to carry at least $50,000 of health insurance as a requirement for entry. The Bahamas mandates travel health insurance for all incoming visitors (the cost for the mandatory insurance is included in the price of the Travel Health Visa all tourists are required to apply for before entry). Aruba requires COVID-19 insurance to be purchased onsite at arrival.
Check your health insurance before leaving the country for a trip. If coverage is slim or nonexistent, you probably need travel medical insurance. Keep in mind medical benefits offered by many travel insurance policies are secondary, which means the insurance pays only for what you can’t claim from your regular health insurer/HMO. On the off chance you already have good foreign-country coverage, additional travel insurance would probably be a waste of money.
Bundled medical coverage
Almost all travel insurance bundles include a combination of trip cancellation insurance (TCI) and medical benefits. Based on a test search for a two-week trip to Europe, the least expensive bundled policy was a few hundred dollars (total) for two people. This covered a few thousand dollars in TCI plus $50,000 in medical/dental emergency costs per person and $50,000 in medical evacuation expenses per person. That’s about the minimum coverage; if you think you need more, for slightly more money you can buy a policy providing TCI plus $100,000 in medical emergency and $500,000 medevac per person.
If you don’t want the TCI, you can buy just medical coverage and customize it according to your needs. On the sample trip I tested, I could buy minimum coverage ($5,000 medical; $25,000 medevac) for about $100. Or I could pay $195 for $100,000 in medical coverage per person, plus unlimited medevac costs.
For travel to developed countries, I am usually good with $50,000 in medical and $50,000 medevac coverage. When I travel to less-developed areas, I opt for slightly higher limits. But it’s ultimately your call; make the choice that’s right for you.
Annual medical and medevac coverage
If you travel a lot internationally, you may want to buy medical/medevac insurance for six months or a year rather than per trip. A low-benefit policy for frequent travelers that offers about $10,000 in medical and $25,000 in medevac for each trip costs about $100 per year (for one person). A more generous policy ($100,000 medical, unlimited medevac per trip) costs about double that for one year (for one person). These policies are designed for travelers who make several short trips each year; policies for long-term overseas trips or extended business assignments are priced differently.
Most medevac policies call for transport to either the nearest appropriate medical facility or back to the USA, depending on the circumstances. That typically means you start at a local or regional hospital. The insurance pays for transport back to the USA only when, in the opinion of the attending physician, local and regional facilities are inadequate.
When it comes to medevac, the insurance company calls the shots. That means you must from the beginning make all arrangements through the insurance company or its local agents. If you bypass them and make your own booking, chances are the insurance company won’t cover it.
Can your credit card help?
Several premium credit cards provide lesser travel medical insurance in an emergency in a foreign country. Although the language in the card literature may seem to promise a lot, what you typically get is a referral to file claims and not any genuine assistance.
The fine print for the AmEx Platinum card, for example, says, “Whenever you travel, have peace of mind knowing that you have 24/7 medical, legal, financial, and other emergency assistance while traveling more than 100 miles from home. We can direct you to English-speaking medical and legal professionals and arrange for a transfer to a more appropriate medical facility, even if an air ambulance is required.” Note the terms say “arrange for,” not “pay for.” What you get is help in making arrangements; the cost of those arrangements is charged to your credit card, unless moving you is deemed “medically necessary.” Most other credit cards have similar terms.
How to choose travel medical insurance
The medical risks you face when traveling outside the U.S. are hard to quantify. While the chances of facing a major medical problem may be small—very small, when it comes to medevac—the financial consequences of a serious event are potentially quite large.
Fortunately, travel health insurance prices are not bad. As with all travel insurance, I suggest you check with one or two online travel insurance aggregators, enter your personal details, trip details, and the coverages you want, and select the policy that best meets your needs. Some of the major agencies include InsureMyTrip.com, Squaremouth.com, and QuoteWright.com. Or go directly to insurers like Allianz, Travel Guard, and Travelex. Note that some have a Covid-19 coverage tool that allows you to compare different policies.
Note: Travel medical policies don’t usually cover the cost of coronavirus tests required for entry into a specific country. That includes a test to determine if you have an active infection as well as an antigen test to ascertain whether you’ve had COVID-19 in the past. (Note: your health insurance policy may provide this coverage.)
Whichever type of insurance you choose, it’s important to know what your specific plan says and what it doesn’t. Most policies include a “free look” period during which you can review the policy you just bought to see if it meets your needs and cancel without penalty if it doesn’t. Take advantage of this!
Twist’s Take: If you want affordable medical care and medevac if you get sick/hurt overseas, you need travel medical insurance.
