Travel health insurance can be confusing, especially when you’re not sure which option is right for you. Travel Insurance 101
For instance, if you’re traveling within the United States and you don’t need medical treatment in a foreign country, do you really need travel health insurance?
The answer is yes! You still want some sort of protection should an accident occur or something go wrong while traveling abroad, even if it’s just to treat minor illnesses and injuries so that you can continue on your journey without interruption.
Here are three types of travel health insurance you may not have considered before.
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1) Medical Evacuation
Travel insurance is often thought of as a safety net to cover you if your trip is canceled or cut short by a family emergency, injury, illness, or natural disaster. However, travel insurance also has an important role in preparing for a safe trip; specifically, it can reimburse you for medical evacuation to and from foreign countries.
If someone gets sick while traveling overseas, they could find themselves hundreds of miles away from home with no way to get back safely. That’s where travel health insurance comes in handy: by covering medical evacuation services (and even providing translation and other related support), it can save your life when you’re stuck abroad without access to proper care.
2) Pre-existing Conditions
Preexisting conditions can exclude you from coverage, even if you’re otherwise healthy. What’s more, unlike a traditional health insurance policy, travel insurance generally covers only serious conditions and pre-existing issues that are determined to be a direct result of your trip.
So if you have a chronic condition that requires daily medication or a disease that has recently flared up, but will subside by your departure date, it’s important to know whether your condition is eligible for coverage before buying a policy. If it isn’t, check out gap and stop-loss insurance, which could help pay for out-of-pocket expenses should something go wrong during your trip?
3) Emergency Medical Coverage
Most travelers are familiar with travel medical insurance. This kind covers medical expenses and/or repatriation services (which includes air transport back to your home country) should you get sick or injured while traveling abroad. With most plans, these benefits are capped at $500,000, but higher limits are available.
For example, World Nomads has an annual limit of $1 million per person. Emergency evacuation coverage is one feature offered on some plans, but most don’t have it as a standard benefit (though it can usually be added for an additional fee).