Envision breaking an arm while falling off the precipice of a mountain in a secluded area. Your vacation would become quite a venture if this happened in a third-world country, far from your familiar emergency and medical services. Travel insurance may have been the last thing on your mind until your fall.
If a hospital wasn’t close by, it could take you two days in order to get to a hospital. Once arriving at a medical center, your troubles are not over; you’d likely need to pay a local teen to bring you ethnic food and painkillers from neighborhood kiosks. The reason for this is that many third world hospitals don’t stock these kinds of things.
And if surgery is required, being able to trust the anesthesia, or hoping for sterile procedures, could be a real concern. Your total hospital bill could be as little as $100 cash for having both of your arms set and put into casts. Your next need would be finding a flight to your country and negotiating a seat on the plane.
In this situation, private insurance may cover four operations and a further six months of physical therapy. This would not be available to those without insurance. Most travelers do not consider these risks as they set out for their trips, but insurance becomes more and more essential as your destination becomes more remote.
Trip cancellation coverage could be included with the medical travel insurance that is available through some travel agencies and health insurers. The policies that you can purchase vary depending on which insurance company that you choose, as well as your budget, but many of the will base your overage on increments of one hundred dollars.
Most people who buy travel insurance are elderly people who often worry about canceling a trip because of illness or worried they will require care abroad for an existing health problem. Medicare will not cover you as you are traveling out of the country, but other insurers may. Of course, Medicare is the prime medical insurance provider for senior citizens in the United States.
When a patient is a tourist, often hospitals demand cash, travelers checks or credit card payment. Smaller incidents, such as a few stitches, are often no problem with this form of payment. On the other hand, if you are in need of an emergency room, having travelers health care insurance could save you a lot of trouble.
When you have travel insurance, the party insuring you will compensate you if death or illness causes the cancellation of your trip. This may be either related to you personally or that of a relative. Insurance will also compensate you if your tour group or airline goes bankrupt.
There are numerous other healthcare concerns that you should be aware or prior to traveling overseas, outside of travel insurance. Visit your area hospital’s travel clinic in order to get any vaccinations and shots that might be required by the area you are visiting. It would be smart to ask your medical insurance company for the proper procedure to obtain medical treatment at your vacation destination.
A good preventative plan is to include the following when you pack: thermometer, antibacterial ointment and bandages, in addition to a general first aid kit. In order to make sure that you don’t run into any medical problems, be sure to pack several days more of medications than what you plan to need. Having prescription information in Latin, including generic names, is a good idea, as well.
Credit cards provide some travel insurance, regardless of whether you have travel insurance. For instance, if you used your American Express card to cover the cost of your trip, they will cover the cost of your car rental damage, and baggage the airline company may have lost, and on occasion, injuries. If you choose to pay a small extra fee, they will even cover the cost of a flight you may have missed, emergency evacuations, medical costs, and other precarious situations.
Proper planning can minimize the trauma of many unexpected events that can arise during foreign travel. You should always read the fine print of any policy that you buy, as well as your credit card policies, and your traveling agent’s policies. Travel insurance can be a great help, but policy details are important and should be understood.
For more information contact Senior Solutions at (954) 456-8984 or toll free at 1-800-213-3524
No comments:
Post a Comment