When we travel abroad, our domestic health insurance usually won’t cover us if we fall ill or become injured and need to seek medical care. This is what makes travel insurance a must-have for every international traveler.
Travel insurance comes in two types: travel medical insurance and trip insurance. For comprehensive urgent medical care while you’re traveling outside of your home country, travel medical insurance may seem like the obvious choice.
While it is true that you’ll have more comprehensive coverage with travel medical insurance, Americans traveling abroad have another option for urgent medical coverage: trip insurance. Most trip insurance plans offer limited coverage for eligible emergency medical expenses in the form of Accident and Sickness Insurance.
What is Accident and Sickness Insurance?
Accident and Sickness Insurance is a benefit offered by many trip insurance plans which can provide protection abroad in the event that you become sick or injured during your travels.
What Does Accident and Sickness Insurance Cover?
Accident and Sickness Insurance as a benefit of trip insurance can offer coverage for emergency medical care that you seek for an unexpected sickness or accident that occurs while abroad during your travels. Coverage will vary from plan to plan, so reviewing your policy’s description of coverage can give you a better idea of what is covered under this benefit.
What is Considered an Accidental Injury?
An accidental injury can be any type of bodily injury that happens to you while traveling abroad. However, there may be some exclusions included in your plan for injuries, such as those that occur while participating in adventurous or hazardous activities. Exclusions and covered care can be found in the fine print of your trip insurance policy.
What is the Difference Between Accident Insurance and Medical Insurance?
The Accident and Sickness coverage you get with trip insurance isn’t a substitute for your regular domestic health insurance. Trip insurance offers Accident and Sickness coverage for American residents traveling abroad. Policy maximums will vary by plan but some policies have policy maximums as high as $500,000. This means that if you’re traveling abroad and incur a new injury or contract a new illness that requires emergency medical attention, you may be covered.
Trip Insurance Includes Emergency Medical Evacuation
Depending on the policy, your trip insurance policy may also include emergency medical evacuation coverage. If you’re sick on a cruise, injured in a location with rough terrain, or in a village with limited medical resources, this benefit can be a literal life saver.
Emergency medical evacuation usually involves airlifting the sick or injured policyholder to the nearest medical facility, where they can get the treatment they need. The service would cost an uninsured person upwards of $100,000 and they would still need to pay for any additional medical care they received.
The Benefits of Trip Insurance
In addition to the urgent medical coverage offered through the accident and sickness benefit, trip insurance also protects your trip investment. With most basic trip insurance plans, travelers may be protected for certain prepaid travel expenses related to things like trip cancellations, missed connections, and luggage loss.
Basic trip cancellation insurance coverage can cover prepaid non-refundable expenses should you need to cancel your trip for a covered reason. These reasons may include inclement weather, sickness of self, a travel companion or a dependent, death of a loved one, or job termination. Covered reasons may vary from plan to plan so be sure to read your policy documentation. Only those situations explicitly stated in these documents will be covered under standard trip cancellation.
However, trip insurance plans are customizable. You can choose an add-on like Cancel For Any Reason coverage and you’ll be able to cancel your trip for any reason, even if it’s not explicitly stated as a covered one, and still recoup certain prepaid travel expenses like hotel or rental deposits.
Contact VisitorsCoverage for Help With Your Trip Insurance Questions
If you can’t decide whether you need travel medical insurance or trip insurance, this explainer can help. Still have questions? We’ve got answers. Our team of licensed trip insurance experts is happy to help.
