Travel insurance for emergencies
Often travelers aren’t aware travel insurance exists, overlook it or decide to self-insure and not use it. Well, it’s never important until you need it! It’s not only important to consider travel insurance, but is critical to make sure that you have the correct coverage. When considering your trip, your possessions, your luggage, and your health, travel insurance and more importantly the right kind of travel insurance is a serious business. The top three reasons travelers have it is peace of mind, protection against unexpected loss and concern over losing money invested in a trip. There are hundreds of circumstances that could cause you to cancel your trip, return home early or force you to seek emergency medical treatment while traveling. We encourage our clients to seriously consider travel insurance. Ultimately it is your decision, but we want to make sure you have a basic understanding and can make an educated decision or whether or not to insure your travel and the coverages that are needed.
We are travel advisors and not insurance agents. We can give you information about travel insurance but can’t provide advice on the coverage. We work with several top-quality travel insurers; companies that provide the best coverage that will discuss your insurance options with you and answer any questions that you have. Insurance is all about details-we advise our clients to read policies carefully and make sure that you understand what you have and what you don’t have. We also recommend that you have a complete understanding of when and how claims are paid.
To establish the importance of purchasing travel insurance here are just a few examples of what could go wrong:
- You arrive at the airport and find your flight has been cancelled.
- A terrorist incident occurs at your destination city and you want to cancel your trip.
- Your bag is lost with essential medications inside.
- When you arrive, the bag containing your breathing device is dropped, the equipment is damaged and no longer works. You can’t sleep without it.
- Your passport and wallet are stolen.
- You’re travel partner is in an accident and medical treatment is not available. Who will help coordinate a medical evacuation?
- You have an appendicitis in a foreign country and don’t speak the language.
- A hurricane forces you to evacuate your resort, hotel or cruise.
Here are several of the travel insurance coverages you should consider:
- Medical expense
- Accidental death and dismemberment
- Emergency medical and dental coverages
- Trip cancellation and interruption insurance
- Baggage loss, damage and theft
- Baggage and travel delay
- Missed connection
- Emergency medical transportation and evacuation
- Car rental collision coverage
- Travel medical assistance- (a very critical part of any travel insurance policy, numerous types of coverages available) medical evacuation transportation assistance, medical equipment rental and replacement, medical payment arrangements, medical records transfers, physician/hospital/dental/vision referrals, prescription replacement and more…
- Extra coverages like pre-existing medical conditions, trip cancellation due to financial default and many more
Make sure to ask about the “free look period” and effective dates of coverage-it is very important to know when coverage starts and ends. Ask also about the speed and ease (paperless claim filing) of filing and receiving claim payments.
