Your health insurance may not help you abroad. Are you among the 70 percent of Americans who travel overseas without travel insurance? According to the U.S. Travel Insurance Association, that’s how many of us get a whiff of sunscreen and throw caution to the wind, happily believing our domestic health policy will see us through. Of the 30 percent of Americans who buy travel insurance, many people purchase it for the cancellation cover and baggage insurance and are unaware of the medical clauses to look for.
Why should you be concerned about medical coverage overseas? Put it this way, is your health insurance really going to pay to fly you back home if you fall ill abroad? That service costs upwards of $50,000. If everyone realized what it cost to fall seriously ill on vacation, we’d all be checking the fine print pretty closely.
Your health insurance may say it applies overseas and covers you for “customary and reasonable” hospital costs abroad. But that’s not worth much when you consider the added extras that are not covered by the insurance but are pretty “customary and reasonable” to you if you’ve had an accident. For example, if you break a leg climbing for a great view over those ancient ruins, or slip on an over-polished hotel lobby floor, health insurance may cover a night in hospital but it won’t shell out for the x-ray or the cast. Most policies, if they cover overseas incidents at all, will force you to pay upfront and then submit your claim when you return home. Also, the regular medical facilities in many countries abroad may not be up to U.S. standards and you’ll need to consider ‘upgrading’ to private healthcare, which won’t be covered by your domestic health insurance policy.
OK, so you’ve saved on a bargain vacation so you can pay for an x-ray yourself. But what happens if disaster strikes? It may be rare to suffer a major health problem on vacation but unfortunately it does happen. The most common serious health incidents affecting Americans abroad are car accidents and heart attacks. Health insurance is highly unlikely to pay for repatriation to the U.S., special assistance on a flight home or an air ambulance if you need it.
Not surprisingly, Medicare and Medicaid programs do not provide coverage for medical costs outside the United States. Your credit card may offer some form of travel insurance but this is usually in the form of a referral service to a specified medical facility and nothing more. Don’t expect to rely on your friendly U.S. diplomat for financial help, either. A U.S. Consular Officer overseas will help an American citizen locate medical services and inform relatives at home and they will assist in transferring funds to you but, as the U.S. Department of State respectfully reminds us, “payment of hospital and all expenses is the responsibility of the traveler.”
Money isn’t the only consideration. Imagine how stressful it could be to fall ill in an unfamiliar country, with no way of knowing where to find quality healthcare and no money to pay for it even if you did find it. Good travel protection comes with an emergency hotline number to help you locate the nearest suitable healthcare center, especially useful when you can’t speak the language.
Look at your existing health insurance and find out:
Does it apply aboard?
Does it include emergency treatment abroad?
Does it include emergency evacuation?
If the answer’s no to any of these questions, you know it makes sense to buy supplemental travel insurance, a short term health insurance policy designed for travelers or standalone medical evacuation insurance. Check the fine print of this policy too. Make sure you’re covered for planned activities such as scuba diving, mountain climbing – many insurance policies have an altitude cap, above which you are not covered – and extreme sports. Check the company guarantees medical payments abroad. Don’t forget about pre-existing conditions that may not be dealt with. Finding out too late you’re not covered will be costly, and may be catastrophic.