Travel insurance is a type of insurance that covers any unexpected events or emergencies that may occur during your trip. This can include things like trip cancellations or delays, lost or stolen luggage, medical emergencies, and more.
Before you purchase travel insurance, you need to understand what the policy covers exactly. Most travel insurance policies will cover trip cancellations or interruptions, lost or stolen luggage, medical emergencies, and emergency evacuations. Some policies may also provide coverage for activities like adventure sports or rental car damage.
When shopping for travel insurance, it’s a good idea to compare different policies from different companies to find the one that best fits your needs. Always read the fine print carefully to understand what your potential policy covers. And always purchase your insurance from a reputable company.
It’s also important to keep in mind that travel insurance is not a replacement for health insurance. If you already have health insurance, check with your provider to see what medical services they cover while you are traveling.
In general, this type of insurance can provide peace of mind and financial protection while you’re on the road. It’s always better to be safe than sorry, so consider purchasing a travel insurance policy before your next trip. Healthedly agents are ready to answer any of your questions about this kind of insurance, what your options are, and even a free quote to get started!
Are you planning a cruise next year or in a few months? Cruises offer a fantastic way of seeing a part of the world by luxury liner, whether you want to explore a tropical paradise or see the Northern Lights. Cruise ships are an encapsulated metropolis, but you should still remember the motto “Always Prepared”. Cruise ships sometimes don’t dock for weeks at a time, so you will want to avoid the stress of needing an essential item but having to wait to get on dry land.
So, what do you need to pack for your next cruise? What should you add to your packing list? These are the essentials you will need for your next cruise.
Everyday outfits
Start with figuring out everyday outfits to wear daily on the trip. Choose a pair of your favorite shorts, skirt, or leggings to wear. Then find two or three tops that you can cycle through. Don’t forget comfy shoes, slippers, and sandals. Cruise ships tend to make stops at various tourist attractions along the way. Some of these locations include a place to hike or explore. Make sure you take along some good walking shoes for an excursion on land. If you are going on a Caribbean cruise, you will want a good swimsuit, hat, and other beachwear. For an Alaskan cruise, make sure to pack layers, like a couple of sweaters or a jacket and gloves.
Staying Active
You will want to stay active on board, to work off all those mimosas and all-you-can-eat brunches. Add your favorite activewear outfit to your suitcase so you can take advantage of the ship’s fitness facilities. Be sure to grab an extra sweater or jacket; if you are on an Alaskan cruise, you may want to go hiking and explore the beautiful northwest. It can get chilly that close to the Arctic circle!
Evening outfits
There are a number of cruise lines with relaxed rules around evening wear onboard a cruise ship. However, many of the luxury lines stipulate a more formal dress code in the evening. When planning your wardrobe, be sure to pick out a few business casual outfits, and even a couple of formal looks to wear on the ship at night.
Essentials
If you take a prescription medication, be sure to bring along more than enough for the cruise. It’s always best to have more than you need just in case and divide them into separate containers, in case you lose one. This way, you will not lose all of your medication if you happen to misplace a container.
Of course, grab all your toiletries and essential items you will need for a trip. Travel experts recommend taking along a first aid kit as well.
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Any travel includes risks. Whether it is a short flight to another state or a long trip around the world, every time you have a scheduled flight, a planned train, a hotel booking, or a tour, there is the possibility of an error.
Without travel protection, that error could not only cost you a lot, but it could leave you stranded in a train station, looking for a last-minute hotel, or it could mean you never get to leave your home, to begin with. Travel interruption is a major reason to get a protection plan and buy travel insurance.
Travel insurance coverage tries to ease the pain of all of that. While travel insurance plans can’t guarantee to get you where you need to be when you need to be there, the insurance can mean that you won’t be shelling out a lot of money to solve unexpected problems.
Travel Health Insurance
But the real problem is not missing luggage or canceled flights. Those can be a pain and mess up your vacation, but what we’re talking about is your health–your life.
Injury and sickness—medical expenses—are a big aspect of travel insurance trip protection. Does the country you’re traveling to have a good healthcare system? Will your home country’s health plan cover the doctor’s visit? Or will you be paying foreign doctors in foreign currency full price for care?
Do I Need Travel Health Insurance?
That all depends on how much risk you’re willing to take on. Certainly, you aren’t required to have this type of coverage, but when you have a major trip planned that needs to go according to schedule, it only makes sense to have contingency plans.
One trip travel health insurance is always good to look into at the very least. Multiple trips make it almost a must. And if you have pre-existing conditions for your health, it’s definitely wise.
And, the more distant the country you’re traveling to, the more important this coverage becomes. If you’re a New Yorker traveling to Toronto, there’s little language barrier or cultural differences. The medical system is relatively easy to navigate, and you’re not going too far away from home. However, traveling to a country that doesn’t speak your language, that doesn’t have your customs, that might not have the same level of healthcare you’re accustomed to—that’s when you need global trip protection.
How Much Is Travel Insurance?
It depends on how old you are and the overall cost of the trip. A relatively young person in good health will probably spend 3-5% of the overall cost, but a retiree might pay 10%.
Travel will always have uncertainties, and you should be prepared for whatever comes up. But one of the worst things to experience while traveling is a medical emergency. It’s very likely that your personal health insurance won’t cover much–if anything at all–of your foreign medical bills. And getting caught in China or Germany or South America with an emergency appendicitis–or worse–can be financially devastating. Even travel health insurance when you’re traveling within the United States can be a very good idea, as almost everywhere you go is going to be out-of-network for the insurance you have. And health insurance companies are not known for being forgiving or willing to work with you. An uncovered medical emergency can cost you thousands of dollars, or tens of thousands of dollars.
What Does Travel Medical Insurance Cover?
To be clear, there are two different types of travel insurance. There’s the kind of insurance that will cover your expenses in case of a trip interruption, emergency evacuation, trip cancellation and more. What we’re talking about here is a medical travel insurance plan that provides medical coverage, should a health emergency arise.
Some of the plans that you find through travel insurance companies will have up to $500,0000 per person for medical expenses. This will include emergency medical and dental treatment, doctor and hospital bills, emergency transportation by ambulance or related vehicle. This also includes some amount of travel assistance, including working with you on rearranging your trips.
Is it Worth it Getting This Insurance For Europe and Other Places Abroad?
The truth is that you may have an outstanding health insurance plan in the United States. However, almost all U.S. health insurance, including Medicaid and Medicare, are not recognized outside the country. Even in countries that have good national healthcare systems, a medical emergency for a foreign traveler could be financially devastating.
Europe is known for having better-than-average healthcare systems (though don’t count on them to be cheap). But the further you go away from healthcare hubs, the more likely you are to be spending more money. For example, while a hospital stay in Sweden might be surprisingly affordable, don’t expect the same level of subsidized care if you travel further in Europe. For example, you will not get the same care in countries like Romania, Bulgaria, and Slovakia.
Is It Worth it Getting Health Travel Insurance For South America? Asia? Africa?
The answer is an emphatic “YES”. There are some places in each of these continents with top-notch medical care. Singapore, Japan, and South Korea have some of the best doctors and medical facilities. However that doesn’t mean they’re free. Although the further you get off the beaten path, for instance, on a safari to the Serengeti, or to an island in the South Pacific; standards of care can drop and costs can skyrocket.
Is It Worth It For Domestic Flights?
Yes, this type of insurance is even important if you’re not leaving the country. It may be easier to find a doctor who is in-network, but many times when people travel they stretch their expenses, spending the most they can afford and not leaving much of a buffer for emergencies. It’s wise to plan ahead and have the peace of mind, even on domestic trips, that you’ll get the care you need.
Is It Worth It Getting Travel Insurance For Flights?
While we believe in getting travel insurance that will cover things like lost baggage, rental cars, and interruption coverage, Healthedly provides the most important type of travel insurance: travel health insurance.
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Put simply, travel insurance is an insurance plan that covers unexpected expenses that occur during travel. These can range from medical coverage to travel plans to lost luggage to emergency departures.
Injury and Illness
When you become injured or ill while traveling, you may be frustrated to know that your American health plan probably won’t cover doctor visits in foreign countries. Travel medical expenses can get very high, depending on where you are in the world. Very often, your United States medical coverage policy doesn’t apply—even with health coverage like Medicare or Medicaid. Travel insurance is a type of medical coverage that will pay for medical visits, hospital stays, medications, and more.
There are usually provisions in travel insurance you need to be aware of. All travel insurance plans are different and you will want to make sure of exactly what your plan covers. However, some travel medical insurance plans do not cover pre-existing conditions. These conditions are generally defined by a certain period before you take your trip, often 120 days. You often have to be deemed medically fit to travel and have no presented symptoms at the time you leave.
The travel policies also have strict time limits which coincide with the time that you are gone. For example, travel insurance basically covers your travel assistance from the time your airplane takes off to when it lands.
Illnesses Often Not Covered by Travel Insurance
Generally speaking, travel insurance does not cover mental health conditions, including anything from Alzheimer’s to depression to psychosis. The insurance will usually have caveats about epidemics (with specific guidelines about COVID-19 and traveling to countries that are high-risk). They will also rarely cover injuries or illnesses caused by the use of alcohol or drugs during the trip. There will always be provisions about traveling while pregnant.
What Else Is Covered by Travel Insurance?
Most of the things covered by travel insurance aren’t actually medical-related. Lost luggage is a great example. If you travel halfway around the world on a three-week trip only to find that your luggage has gone missing, travel insurance can help to pay to replace it.
(The Department of Transportation requires airlines to pay for lost luggage, but very often the payout will only come after the bags are officially declared “lost” and not simply “delayed” and the payout can take up to 21 days.) Travel insurance can give you money immediately to purchase new clothes and necessities.
Flight cancellations can cause major nightmares if you don’t have travel insurance. If a connecting flight doesn’t get you to your cruise in time to board, the cruise line might only refund you 25 percent of your trip. Travel insurance can offset that loss.
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The coronavirus has changed the face of travel insurance. Prior to 2020, almost all travel insurance did not cover epidemics or pandemics as part of their regular health care coverage.
Remember, all travel insurances are different and you must always read the fine print on any travel insurance plans before you sign. Here are the general coverages that have come up with most travel insurance that covers COVID-19:
Travel insurance that covers COVID-19-related complications includes:
Emergency medical coverage
Emergency medical evacuation coverage
Trip interruption
Free cancellations
Examples of these coverages could include things like getting your trip expenses reimbursed in the event you contract COVID-19 before leaving. Or, you could get medical expenses paid for in a foreign country if you contract COVID-19 while abroad. Moreover, travel insurance could pay to cover accommodations in a foreign country if you are not allowed to return home. These are not covered in all travel insurance plans, but they are becoming more common.
Cancel for Any Reason (CFAR) Coverage
One thing to keep an eye out for is a clause that some of the better travel insurances have, the CFAR clause, or “Cancel For Any Reason.” CFAR has a lot of restrictions applied to it, mostly related to timeframes and eligibility requirements. However, if you have this coverage you could have as much as 50-75% of your trip reimbursed by your travel insurance.
What Happens If You Get Sick with COVID-19 While Traveling?
Travel medical insurance that covers COVID-19 will make it easier and cheaper to get medical care in a foreign country.
Before getting any travel medical insurance that covers COVID, check with your current insurance carrier and see what benefits they offer for traveling abroad. Many of them will not offer any services out of the country. Or perhaps they will have certain countries where they do operate. You will often find your own private insurance company will have travel insurance plans that have special rates for members.
Comprehensive Travel Insurance Plans will offer you global benefits, no matter where you are. Keep in mind, however, that if you contract COVID in a country like Germany or Canada, you should make use of Comprehensive travel coverage. This does not apply if you get sick with COVID-19 in parts of Southeast Asia, Central America, South America, or Africa.
You will still receive the benefits of the travel insurance. However, it may be harder (due to poor communication lines in certain regions) to get immediate coverage.
Emergency Medical Evacuation Coverage gets you out of a foreign country if you are seriously ill or injured. These plans offer both ground transportation which to the nearest medical facility. The plans also offer transportation to an airplane for out of the country dispatching.
The choice to fly you out of a region for evacuation only happens if local physicians don’t feel they can adequately treat you.
Trip Interruption Coverage is in most travel insurance plans. It provides reimbursement for pre-paid, non-refundable expenses if the travel needs to be cut short. This could include expenses like cruise ship tickets, railway tickets, and hotel accommodations.
