Going on Vacation? Make sure your health insurance goes with you!

Going on Vacation? Make sure your health insurance goes with you!

Most of us tend to think of vacation as a summer time activity. However, more and more people seem to be taking a break at this time of year, and escaping the cold and snow by vacationing during the winter months. If you are not planning a winter vacation at the moment, perhaps you are researching your summer plans, and the following information may be beneficial to you as well. Regardless of when you will be vacationing, make sure a quick review of your health insurance is part of your planning.

If you will be traveling abroad, (outside the United States) you had best check on your coverage outside the United States. Many health insurance plans do not provide adequate coverage outside the U.S. Furthermore, many foreign hospitals will not accept USA health insurance, and will simply ask for a cash payment or a credit card payment. If you are planning a cruise, find out before you leave town how the cruise line handles an illness on board. By illness, I do not mean sea sickness or the flu. I am referring to an illness that requires medical attention other than an aspirin, or anti-neausea medication.

Medicare is a Federally administered plan, and thus the coverage is strictly within the confines of our Country. If you have a Medicare Supplement, you may have a life time maximum benefit of $50,000 for travel outside the US. Some employer sponsored group health insurance plans do offer coverage either in network or out of network in foreign countries. Keep in mind, the idea of health insurance going with you when you travel may extend to a much tighter circle of travel if you have an H.M.O. In that case, traveling to a different state may cause a coverage issue for you. The bottom line is, “know before you go!” No one plans on getting sick when they go away, but it happens to a lot of people. Be sure you know how your coverage will work before you leave home. If you need to get home fast for a family emergency, transportation can run into thousands of dollars, depending on where in the world you happen to be when you get that unfortunate phone call.

Travel insurance can minimize the financial consequences of many unforeseen travel events. There are three parts to travel insurance: Trip investment (this covers trip interruption or cancellation), personal health (which fills in gaps in your regular health insurance), and personal belongings (which covers baggage loss and car rental damage). You really want to have at least the first two kinds. Check with your automobile insurance carrier to see what coverage you have, if any, if you are driving someone else’s car, including a car rental. You may very well be covered under your own auto insurance policy and will not need additional coverage. When you rent a car, they strongly recommend you take the additional insurance, but chances are, you do not need it. Again, check with your auto insurance carrier to be certain. A five minute phone call could save you some money.

When you look into travel insurance, make sure it includes “medical evacuation”, which covers the cost of getting you to an appropriate medical facility, and “repatriation”, which covers the cost of getting you back home. A client of ours retired a few years ago at the age of 65. Immediately upon retirement, he took a trip to Acapulco. Upon arrival, he tripped and fell getting off of the moving sidewalk in the airport. He broke his hip and had to be transported back to the US in an air ambulance. The air ambulance bill was over $5,000. Luckily he had followed our advice and had enrolled in travel insurance which paid most of the bill.

You can buy travel insurance through cruise lines, AAA, travel agencies, organized touring companies (Tauck Tours, for example) or through websites. When you do not have a trained professional to help you, you must be very careful using the web. Health insurance is not an easy subject to understand, and you do want to make sure you will be adequately insured. Will the plan cover preexisting conditions? Suppose you are taking medication for hypertension and you have a heart attack in Ireland? The heart attack will be related to the hypertension and will not be covered if the plan excludes preexisting conditions. It is best to buy the insurance from an American company that meets American standards. Cruise lines are only brokering the deal; the insurance itself should be coming from an outside company. Travel agencies often offer excellent packages with more features, such as better health coverage and higher spending limits. If you like using the computer and checking out websites, go to www.USTravelinsurance.org for a list of 11 companies that meet the US Travel Insurance Association’s standards. You can also go to InsureMyTrip.com to compare costs.

The cost of most travel insurance plans ranges between 5 and 8 percent of the cost of the trip. You can also get annual policies which will cover you for the entire year. This is the least expensive way to purchase travel insurance if you do a lot of traveling.

One last thought. Nowhere in the world is health care provided the way it is in this country. If you are taking medications, you want to have a list with you of all of your medications, including the strength and dosage and why you are taking that drug. For computer savvy folks, go to www.CDC.gov. which is the web site for the Center for Disease Control. Their website has a wealth of information for wherever in the world you may wish to travel. You can even print out a “personal medical information form” which will allow you to list your pertinent medical history and all the medicines you are currently taking. Once you pull up the website, do a search for “personal medical information” and then pick the first option which includes “CDC-hurricanes/keep it with you: personal medical information.” It is a good idea to download this form, complete it, and carry it in your wallet, even if you aren’t traveling.

Irene Card & Betsy Chandler are both licensed insurance professionals working at MIC Insurance Services, a health insurance services company. If you have questions relative to this column or other related topics, we invite you to call (973) 492-2828, browse our past columns on our web site at www.micinsurance.com.

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