A growing number of people are seeking medical care outside the borders. Travel insurance protects medical tourists from unexpected financial losses on a covered trip. By opting to purchase travel insurance, you are protecting yourself against any travel related risks. Basically, this coverage will help you recover your costs and avoid unexpected high medical expenses. Thus they provide coverage for:
Medical expenses due to complications.
Trip cancellations if the treatment is canceled
Evacuations if shifted to another medical facility
Unexpected medical costs
Flight accidents while on a covered trip
It also includes travel delays, missed connections, and lost luggage coverages.
Factors affecting the cost are varied. These are:
Choice of medical complication benefit
Cost of prepaid medical treatment
Total trip costs
For a medical tourism trip, the total trip costs around $4,500-$5,000 and scheduled medical treatment costs around $2,500-$5,000. While the maximum Medical complication is around $10,000. So the premium would be $466.
Before buying the travel insurance one should compare insurance plans from all companies, get quotes, and then buy them online. It is also advised to review the travel insurance companies and plans and purchase directly from the company. All travel insurance companies include a free look period with a refund that lets us review the plan documentation as if you decide you need some changes to your policy or cancel it. One can get a refund too.
Basically, Medical Tourism plans are highly unique plans customized to very specific traveler circumstances, where only a single company offers one medical tourism travel insurance plan. After that, we need to choose our medical benefits amount and see the plan review for more information. To begin with, you will need to enter some basic information about your trip. You don’t need to supply any personal information yet, just some information about your trip. The things we need are:
- Travel dates
- Trip cost
- Date of the first booking
- Destination
- Age of travelers
- Place of residing
There is no obligation, you can see the actual price quotes instantly, and if you find a plan you like, you can complete the enrollment and purchase online. But if you want, you can use the filters to narrow down the choices based on what is important to you. Like if you want at least $100,000 of emergency medical coverage, you can check the ‘Emergency Medical’ box and select that amount. The screen will only show plans that meet our criteria. While comparing, the listing shows the company logo, plan name, star rating, price, and also the basic coverages. This feature is very powerful when we want specific coverage amounts. The Preset Filters are handy too. For example, the Cruise option presets the Emergency Medical and Evacuation coverage at higher levels due to the additional risks of international travel and being isolated at sea. If these are not required one can just start by looking at the Most Popular, especially the Pre-existing Medical.
The main coverages list include Cancellation, Interruption, Evacuation, Emergency Medical, and whether the medical coverage is Primary or Secondary. Finally, when you narrow down your choices and find a plan that fits your needs, you can enroll and purchase online. After placing the order, you will receive an email with confirmation. This confirmation email has your policy information, important contact numbers, and coverage amounts.
It also has a PDF attachment with a single sheet description of coverage, which can be used as proof of insurance. You can print this and carry it on your trip. In this way, your travel insurance policy is now in place and you are covered. It’s that easy!