Health Insurance Articles
Ensuring Your Health Insurance Policy Covers Expenses While Traveling Abroad
2009-12-25
When traveling abroad, it's important to ensure that your health insurance will cover illness, injuries and other related health concerns during your trip. The U.S. State Department recommends checking with your medical insurance company to confirm whether your health insurance policy applies to treatment overseas. If it does not, then you may wish to consider purchasing supplemental health insurance prior to departure to make sure you are covered during your travels.
It is important to check with your health insurance carrier about what coverage your policy provides abroad and what limits may apply. While most health insurance covers travel within the United States, international travel is usually excluded. However, private health insurance policies that do cover international travel and provide treatment abroad often charge out-of-network health care rates, which can be very expensive. While Medicare does not cover travel abroad, in some cases supplemental Part B will cover services on board a ship within U.S. territorial waters. It may also cover emergency treatment where a foreign hospital is closer than an American hospital. If your policy covers treatment outside the U.S., it's important to ask if transportation home or to a country offering first-rate medical treatment is covered, particularly when your journey will take you to underdeveloped areas. Though many insurance policies will cover reasonable treatment costs, very few will pay for evacuation for the insured to access higher quality treatment elsewhere.
In the event that your health insurance policy does not cover international travel, the availability and cost of medical treatment for the area you're traveling to should be investigated. Treatment costs abroad can be expensive, and many countries can deny medical care to those without sufficient funds to pay. Research on health insurance premiums for supplemental travel insurance, then, is essential. The basic necessities to seek in that coverage are 24-hour emergency service and assistance for any sudden illness or injury. A provision for additional recreational activities, like water sports, should also be included if such activities are planned. The policy should also cover the full duration of the trip. It's imperative to understand the full scope of the policy including coverage maximums, deductibles, medical evacuation, billing, reimbursement and, especially, regions, treatments, procedures and pre-existing conditions that are excluded from the policy coverage.
Travel health care rates should be investigated well ahead of your trip to allow for planning for the added expense of travel health insurance premiums. Regardless of the type or level of health insurance coverage you have, keep your proof of your insurance with you at all times during your journey. Then you can travel with the peace of mind knowing that your health is protected wherever you go.
