During this time of year, many people are preparing their summer travel plans by booking flights & hotels, but many people are overlooking travel insurance. You may be asking: why do I need travel insurance if I have health insurance? Below are 5 reasons why you should purchase inexpensive travel insurance for your next trip abroad. Click here for a free travel insurance quote.
- Emergency Medical Evacuation Coverage
Most U.S. health insurance plans do not cover medical emergency evacuation. The cost of airlifting and medical emergency evacuation can be very expensive starting at $25,000 and may exceed $250,000. For example, you travel to Costa Rica and have a heart attack. In Costa Rica, there is no available specialist to be located and you are required to be medically evacuated to Miami to get a certain bypass operation. This Medical Evacuation will cost you approx. $25,000, if you have a medical evacuation to the U.S. from Asia and Europe the cost might go over $100,000 or more.
- Access to quality provider networks abroad
Most U.S. health insurance companies do not offer networks of overseas medical providers and hospitals. This means it is your responsibility during an emergency situation to locate a medical provider and/or hospital that offers quality care and hopefully speaks your language. With travel insurance, you can rest assured that you will be covered by a global provider network.
- Immediate Medical Care
You may be able to contact your doctor or a doctor of your U.S. health insurance via telemedicine. However, he/she will not be able to give you a prescription for medication that will be honored by an overseas pharmacy and/or send you to a network hospital overseas. Travel insurance will make both finding a doctor and getting access to care much faster.
- Simplified Medical Claims Processing
After you have finally located and received medical help overseas, you then have to deal with the headache of processing the medical claims with your U.S. insurance. You will have to translate the medical bills and medical records, find the correct medical billing codes and verify the conversion of foreign currency you spent. However, it is most likely that you will need to chase the U.S. health insurance carrier to get reimbursed for out-of-pocket expenses. Having travel insurance specialized to deal with worldwide claims will make the claims process more stress-free.
- Medicare does not cover you outside the United States
Many seniors love to travel during their retirement and often to overseas destinations. Did you know that Medicare does not cover you overseas and that your supplemental plan or Advantage plans cover only limited overseas healthcare utilization? Let’s say you are on a cruise ship, and the medical staff determines that you need to be airlifted to the nearest hospital. If a commercial medical helicopter is used, the upfront cost can be upwards of $10,000 to get you to the nearest hospital. Additionally, it’s not unusual for a patient in a local foreign hospital to require transportation back to the United States for further treatment. As an example, from a Caribbean country to the US, the cost can easily reach $30,000. The average cost for an Intensive Care transfer from China to the United States is $250,000.
Solid Health Insurance Services in conjunction with Geo Blue offer plans with different levels of coverage, ranging from 0 deductible plans to $ 500 deductible with a travel insurance benefit maximum varying from $50,000 to $ 1,000,000. Click on the link for an immediate quote or for any questions contact us at Info@solidhealthinsurance.com.