Travel Health Insurance

The first important rule of traveling away from your home territory, is do not leave without travel health insurance. If you are employed or otherwise a member of a group health plan, HMO, PPO, you need to check your policies to see if they will provide coverage during your trip

The wording in most policies is that they will cover you to travel away from home and back and the policy must be effective before you leave. It is difficult to arrange for coverage once you are away from your home jurisdiction.

Travel health insurance policies usually only pay expenses for unforeseen unanticipated medical problems or emergencies. A typical example of how they work is as follows:

You have a bad chest cold so you visit a clinic on your vacation out of country. The doctor prescribes medication and you seem to improve. Two weeks later, you develop pneumonia, and it will NOT be covered by your policy. Another example, you have chest pains so go to an emergency clinic. They do numerous tests and decide you must have had a bad case of gas. A week later you have a heart attack, and it will probably NOT be covered. There is usually a time frame allowed after an illness for you to return home, most policies allow about 72 hours. Please don’t ever delay seeking treatment for any condition. Your health isn’t worth that risk: however you need to consider the risks of continuing your vacation after any medical incident.

Some policies require little information from you when initially issued. That does not mean that you will automatically be covered for everything. Insurers will verify your medical history when you submit a claim. Therefore, it is up to you to ensure that you meet the qualifications for coverage.

As a general rule most insurers require notification when you seek medical treatment. Most provide 1-800 numbers and other numbers for various countries. Notification requirements can be a problem if you must notify an insurer to get permission for ground ambulance coverage. If you need an ambulance, you may not have time or be able to communicate.

As a seasoned RV’er I have looked at many travel health insurance policies. Travel health polices generally provide the following coverages:

Generally included:

Emergency hospital
Emergency medical
Meals and accommodations (certain circumstances and to set limits)
Transportation of family or friend plus incidental costs depending on special circumstances and to set limits
Return of traveling companion

Transport of patient back to his home country for further treatment (at the insurer’s discretion and expense)

Return to original trip destination (certain circumstances and to set limits)

Elective procedures
Cosmetic procedures
Traveling against physicians advice
Injuries from participating in dangerous sports
Injuries due to metal illness
Injuries or illness due to use of alcohol, drugs and etc.
Treatment for continuation of illness/accident which could be reasonably delayed until return home
Acts of terrorism or war

These are only a few of the possible exclusions. You must always read the fine print on your policy.

Annual policies are issued to cover a number of trips in a single twelve month period. They can range from a few days to months. They also exclude pre-existing conditions under certain circumstances. You must meet the criteria for pre-existing condition coverage for each trip within the year. For instance, if your policy specifies that your high blood pressure must be stable for 90 days; that means 90 days before a particular trip, not the effective date of the policy.

One of the advantages of a multi-trip annual plan is that most have a top up feature. You may make many short trips and wish to make one longer trip. These plans allow you to increase the days of a particular trip for an additional per diem amount. These tops ups can generally be done away from your home jurisdiction. Again, you must read the policy and verify that with your insurance agent.

In the event of a claim, you may be required to provide documentation of your travel to and from your home territory. Check with your agent to ascertain what kind of documentation the insurer will accept. It is prudent to keep all travel receipts and official travel documents.

Single trip policies cover only a specified time. They are somewhat difficult to shorten or extend once you are on your trip. It can be done, but the insurer may require a new signed insurance policy application. That can be problematic depending on your location. It can be done using the email and fax. Again, check with your agent or the insurer regarding their requirements.

When shopping for travel insurance one of the most important items to evaluate is pre-existing condition coverage. Many policies have a minimum of 90 days in which your condition must be stable before you qualify for coverage for any illness that might in any way be related to that condition. There are usually stipulations that the stable periods are longer for more serious medical problems. Most policies define stable as no symptoms or changes to medication or medication dosages. There are sometimes limits to the number of medications and hospitalizations within a certain period prior to a trip.

Seniors, it is always a good idea for you to visit your doctor before a long trip. One question to ask is if there is anything in your file that he hasn’t reviewed with you. There have been cases when coverage was denied due to a doctor’s file notation. The doctor didn’t think that a particular test result was significant at the time so the patient wasn’t informed. Also the upper policy amount limits are sometimes lower for seniors.

Some policies require full disclosure of all medical conditions and history for a specified period. Should that be required, you need to look for wording to the effect that all coverage under the policy may be null and void if some part of your medical history is overlooked. These policies might not be in your best interest.

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Travel Health Insurance