A Must Read on Travel Insurance

Why opt for Travel Insurance?

Basically, travel insurance is a momentary insurance that people can avail in case of travel emergencies or expenses related to travelling. In times when your medical insurance does not cover you when you are travelling overseas, travel insurance will cover your medical expenses.Travel insurance is nothing but a shield that will protect you and/or your family in unfortunate and unexpected situations while travelling.

How Travel Insurance functions?

After buying a specific travel insurance coverage before (recommended) or during your planned trip, travel insurance will come to use when you encounter problems that become a road block In your travelling and lead to serious unwanted changes In your trip.The company from which you issued the policy will instruct you and help you resolve your problems once you give them the detailed information about your losses (any cost) while travelling. After informing the company claims people, you need to file a claim plus you need to provide documentation of your issue. It is likely that you will need to pay your cost up-front during the trip and then get it reimbursed from the insurance company once they have accepted your claim.

Things that Travel Insurance covers:

1. Medical Expense Coverage: Medical expense coverage will include accidents and urgent medical treatment when you travel abroad. It also includes dental check-up expenses in abroad. Quality medical care when you are travelling overseas can be very expensive. Therefore, if you are an international traveler, then you should be sure that you have medical coverage via travel insurance policy that can cover all your medical expenses while you are on a trip.
2. Lost/Stolen Baggage, Delayed Baggage & Flight Coverage:If your baggage is lost or stolen, then Baggage coverage will repay you for your personal belongings. The delayed flight coverage will provide you with additional expenses if your flight is delayed. For example, book a room in a hotel for your stay if flight is delayed for some couple of hours.
3. Trip Cancellation Coverage: Planned for a trip and due to some unavoidable reasons, you need to cancel your trip,then this coverage comes in handy. This coverage reimburses you for paid and non-refundable expenses if you need to cancel your trip before starting of your trip. Reasons such as injury, sickness, bad weather conditions, terrorist activity in your destination place etc are covered.
4. Emergency Evacuation Coverage: This coverage mainly covers emergency evacuation expenses like airlifts and your transportation to the hospital in case of any emergency.
5. Other: Some additional coverage includes life insurance coverage in case of accidental death, ID theft protection, rental car collision coverage, emergency money transfer etc.

Pre-Existing Medical Condition:

Most of the travel insurance company is unlikely to cover pre-existing medical conditions. If you have a heart disease or any other serious diseases, then unfortunately your policy will not pay out. You should be loyal with the insurance company about your health issues when you’re applying for policy because failure to disclose any relevant information could invalidate your own policy. Some high premium policies can cover the pre-existing conditions though there are high risks of claims. On the contrary, these policies are expensive and very short-lived.

Dos and Don’ts for making a Claim:

Most of the insurance companies expect you to pay for the expenses in your trip and later apply for reimbursement. If you are hospitalized, you should inform the insurers as soon as possible since they need to agree that the treatment is necessary.

Do not arrange for your own evacuation. Travel insurance companies won’t pay for self-arranged evacuation. Don’t file a claim for costs that are avoidable or reimbursable costs.

This article has been published by Saif Raja, a regular blog writer on Insurance Policy. You can find info on Accident Health Insurance