Medical Insurance Coverage While Traveling

[WoohooJen]

My husband and I will be traveling April - September in France, Italy, England, and Scotland. We are staying in Airbnbs with pretty generous cancellation policies, and our return date is still open ended. We are not concerned about cancelation trip insurance, but feel the need for medical and evacuation insurance if we are injured or become very ill. Does anyone have any experience with that or recommendations… or warnings? We never buy trip insurance but we've never traveled like this before!

 

[Andrew]

As a start, you might try www.insuremytrip.com to compare options. We've never made a claim, but for our next trip we have coverage from www.roamright.com ; at other times we've used www.sevencorners.com and https://geobluetravelinsurance.com .

 

[tearendt]

We always purchase trip insurance that includes medical for overseas travel. The links that Andrew mentioned above are where to start. We needed to file a trip cancellation claim several years ago and received money back. If you live in the US and are of an age to be on Medicare.... Medicare coverage does not follow you overseas for the concerns you stated.

 

[Jan55612]

We always get trip cancellation insurance and medical, including evacuation. The longer the trip, the more expensive the coverage because there is a per day charge for medical. Also, the price increases as you age. We made a small claim for medical treatment a couple of times. While Medicare doesn't pay for treatment outside the US, your medicare supplement might. Ours pays 80% of what medicare would have paid if we were in the US receiving the treatment.

 

[WoohooJen]

Thanks for the info! I'll check out the sites from Andrew. We are not quite Medicare age yet, so we just want to have help getting home if something awful happened. Thank you!

 

[davythefatboy]

We always get trip cancellation insurance and medical, including evacuation. The longer the trip, the more expensive the coverage because there is a per day charge for medical. Also, the price increases as you age. We made a small claim for medical treatment a couple of times. While Medicare doesn't pay for treatment outside the US, your medicare supplement might. Ours pays 80% of what medicare would have paid if we were in the US receiving the treatment.

We have the AARP United Health Medicare supplement, as I recall it only covers overseas for the first month of travel.

 

[KKO]

Hello—you are asking a question that is very relevant to me right now! Last summer, we were in Edinburgh and London, planning a visit with our son and family in the latter. My husband, 71, got Covid, when we first arrived in London…by the time we were to leave for home, he had no symptoms. The day we were supposed to leave, he became very short of breath and thought the ER was a better choice than Heathrow. After many tests, he was admitted—more tests determined he needed a mitral valve repair/ aortic valve replacement—in other words: Emergency open heart surgery! He had it and his hospital room had a view of Parliament and Big Ben—he did great, we had accommodations at a friend’s home—we were gone for 9 1/2 weeks—new slant on SLOW TRAVEL, for sure! All this to say: we are still waiting for reimbursement from our Medicare supplement (plan F)—I submitted it on August 26th! Next time we will both get medical insurance —I think it is money well spent, and in hind sight, wish we had it last summer!

 

[SMJ]

I would never leave my province in Canada without checking that I have adequate travel medical insurance.
Each province is different!
I think most Canadians would feel the same.
It's just too expensive in some countries to get the right care if you are ill and spending money up front to get it, with no hope of reimbursement.
Twice in recent years I have had to claim on my travel medical insurance.
The first time I received every penny and travel mile back within ten days.
This last time, I got covid on my last day in Italy, and had to stay an extra five days to recover and isolate.
My insurance claim has been submitted and I hope to recoup most of what I had to spend on an extra hotel stay, food, and airline change fee.
I had added a covid rider for an extra $72 onto the insurance before I travelled, just in case, and am very glad I did.
I can't speak for American insurance companies, but I'm sure there is one out there that will suit your travel plans!
Research carefully.

 

[NoSpin]

SMJ, which insurance company did you use? Is it only available to Canadian citizens?

 

[SMJ]

Hi NoSpin;
It was through BCAA, which is our version of your AAA auto organization in the US.
They use Global Excel Management for their claims and assistance; which, in the small print, has an address in Detroit as well as one in Canada.
So they might be available for the US ?
There are so many claims in since we all started travelling again that I’m not hopeful of seeing a result for many weeks yet!

 

[NoSpin]

Thanks, we are AAA members so I will look into what is available.