Travel Insurance
Travel insurance exists to plug the cracks not covered by your home, personal, and medical insurance programs while you are in transit to your destination, and while you are at your destination. We strongly urge our clients to obtain travel insurance for any trip on which they go (especially for international destinations), and to also check your existing policies (both property and health) to discover what coverage you might already have. There are many different levels of coverage and you can get a standard umbrella package, or obtain coverage for specific areas. You should read all fine print very carefully to see exactly what is and is not covered. Here are common areas that you will see addressed by the various companies:
* Trip cancellation/interruption (this could be sickness or a death in the family on your part, cancellation of a trip after tickets are purchased, etc.)
* Travel delay & loss/missed connection
* Medical/accident
* Air flight accident
* Baggage loss, damage, theft, or delay
* Bankruptcy and default (of the hotel, airline, etc.)
* Evacuation (medical transportation) and reparation (which gets your “remains” transported back to their place of origin)
* Rider for terrorism &/or war
When booking tickets with gold or higher class credit cards you often qualify automatically for some coverage: baggage loss, medical assistance, accidental death & dismemberment, etc. Always check with your credit card company to see what, if anything, they might already cover.
It might be possible that your current health insurance will cover you when you are out of the country. Occasionally, if this is the case, the physician handling your case in the foreign country will probably need to fill out specific forms for your company. When you are asking your insurance agent if they do cover you when you are out of the country you might also ask if any special forms are required, and if so, take copies of the forms with you on the trip.
With travel insurance you can get yearly coverage, coverage for a certain time period (i.e. 90 days), or coverage for the dates of a specific trip. There are many companies that offer coverage and the prices are all over the place: a broad umbrella package ranges from around $200 to $50 dollars or so, so it pays to shop around, and carefully note exactly what is and isn’t covered….exclusions can be just as important as inclusions, so read carefully. Here are a few web sites (in alphabetical order) to check out for travel insurance:
www.lonelyplanet.com has a link to a free service that provides quotes from multiple companies for comparison
www.quotetravelerinsurance.com
For medical evacuation insurance for travelers, the best-known company is MedJet:
also check out:
If you’re not on an Atlas tour and you need to locate an English-speaking doctor or emergency room in a foreign locale you might use the following site as a last resort; your hotel concierge or a local expat (expatriates) group might be the best place to start, but the IAMAT folks might be able to help also:
These folks are the International Association of Medical Assistance for Travelers (IAMAT), a non-profit referral service to advise travelers re: health risks, immunizations, and to recommend English-speaking physicians/medical care in foreign countries