When you go on vacation you're ready to relax, get away from everything, and possibly have a once in a lifetime experience. But, there's always a chance of the unexpected happening while you're abroad. Imagine that you're enjoying a nice walk next to the Eiffel Tower, then BOOM! You're knocked into by a scooter and sprain your ankle. Next think you know you find yourself in a Parisian medical office - the last thing you were expecting while planning to have happen while on your trip. So you get treated and head back to your home country, but in this case you have an invoice for a huge medical bill from the French clinic (not the kind of present you wanted to bring home with you from your getaway). This is exactly why it's an absolute must to have a travel insurance policy to keep yourself covered for the situation explained above, and other types of medical emergencies that may happen while you're traveling.
There are some key benefits to buying travel health insurance for your next trip. We've outline some of them below:
1. Medical bills can eat up all of your savings and ruin your vacation dreams. A single day in a U.S. emegency room costs $4,000 on average, so these expenses can start to accumulate very quickly depending on the severity of your medical issues.
2. There's always fear of the unexpected while traveling abroad - how safe is the area you're traveling to? Is there a current viral outbreak in or near that area? If I get sick will I know how to navigate the hospital system here? Being covered can give you peace of mind knowing that you have a resource to help you navigate these things through your carrier if something were to happen.
3. Most people don't budget for medical expenses in their travel funds, leaving them vulnerable to the high medical bills we explained above. With the amount of money that you spend on food, entertainment, and lodging, it can be difficult to try to figure out how to budget for these unexpeected medical expenses. The last thing you would want is that when you return from vacation, you find that these medical bills end up being your largest, and possibly most overhwhelming expense.
In addition to making sure that you have adequate coverage in case of emergency, travel insurance protect you from high out of pocket medical expenses.
You don't need to wait until you are scheduled to go on vacation to get your travel insurance. Here is our suggested timeline for purchasing a travel medical policy:
4 Weeks From Your Travel Date - Start researching medical travel insurance options
2 Weeks From Your Travel Date - Buy your insurance policy through Covered Traveler
1 Week From Your Travel Date - Double check your plan and make any revisions if necessary
3 Days From Your Travel Date - Print out your ID card and pack it in your luggage or wallet
This is just a suggested timeline based off of our previous experience with customers. It gives you enough padding to make sure that you hav ethe right kind of coverage, can make changes to your policy if needed, and that you're packed with the right documentation in case you need to use your insurance while you're abroad.
The most important thing to remember is that insurance should never be taken for granted - you don't want to take any chances when you go on vacation. These travel insurance policies that are offered are generally inexpensive, especially considering what your out of pocket medical expenses could be if you're un-insured. Here's a quick breakdown of the main points that we covered in this post:
So don't worry about getting sick, maybe even getting a sprained ankle from a rogue scooter driver in Paris during your next vacation. Get a travel insurance policy so you can ensure you're protected in case of an accident or illness.
