Travel and trip insurance policies offer a plethora of benefits for those who are traveling. From medical benefits for unexpected injuries or illness or coverage for lost baggage or a canceled flight, travel insurance can give you peace of mind and protect you financially during your trip.
When planning any trip, especially abroad, it is highly recommended to consider some form of a travel insurance policy that will cover you if you find yourself in a medical emergency or travel blunder. However, is travel medical insurance for everyone? While having a travel insurance plan can never hurt, there may be a few instances where you may not need travel insurance.
Reasons You May Not Need Travel Insurance
Even though travel insurance is an excellent choice for the average traveler, there are some reasons to consider that may help you make a decision on whether or not a travel insurance policy is right for you.
You Have a Comprehensive Global Health Insurance Policy
If you have a global health insurance or a domestic health insurance plan which offers international protection, you may not need travel medical insurance if it covers both trip and travel expenses worldwide. To check if your current health insurance offers this type of coverage, contact your health insurance company.
However, one thing to keep in mind is that although some domestic health care plans do offer international coverage, some policies may only cover health-related expenses and may not offer benefits such as emergency medical evacuation or repatriation of remains. Additionally, the worldwide coverage offered may be limited in terms of policy maximum or other benefits. In this case, you may find it beneficial to still purchase a secondary travel medical insurance plan for your specific travel dates to ensure that you have proper medical or trip expenses coverage.
Your Plane Tickets Are Fully Refundable
When booking your flight for your trip, check the airline’s policy and the type of tickets offered. Your plane ticket may be fully refundable for certain interruptions or cancellations, or you may have the opportunity to purchase a more expensive ticket that offers a full refund. Typically, most airlines don’t offer a full monetary refund for cancellations or missed connecting flights, but allow you to reuse the funds to rebook another flight within a certain time period.
With trip insurance, you can receive a monetary benefit for nonrefundable trip-related costs rather than just an airline credit. Common trip insurance benefits include missed connections, trip interruption, and baggage loss. If you are worried about any nonrefundable trip-related expenses, then trip insurance is a great option to give you peace of mind and reduce the risk of not protecting your trip costs.
Your Credit Card Offers Adequate Travel Insurance Benefits
If you have a credit card that offers travel insurance benefits, then you may not need to purchase a travel insurance plan. Some credit cards offer trip insurance related to missed connections, lost baggage, and more. Additionally, some credit cards may also offer limited medical benefits while traveling for trips booked using that credit card.
It is important to note, however, that these credit card benefits are usually very limited in nature and may not provide adequate coverage for a trip-related expense or medical emergency. If you are booking your trip with a credit card, you can check your credit card’s benefits to see what type of coverage is offered for your travels. Be sure to check the benefit maximums and exclusions to fully understand what exactly you can expect to be covered by your credit card company.
You Don’t Need Financial Assistance
Lastly, if you are in a financial position where you can safely take the risk of losing travel-related expenses or paying out-of-pocket for your medical care, then you may not need a travel insurance plan. However, depending on where you are traveling to, it is important to fully understand just how much financial burden you may have to take on without an insurance policy.
While nonrefundable trip-related expenses are more straightforward as you understand the exact cost you may lose out on based on the real trip expenses, medical bills bring much more uncertainty. It is impossible to know whether or not you may be injured or become ill on a trip, and moreover, the severity of that injury or illness. Depending on the medical care you need in the event of an unexpected incident, your medical bills could be well over tens of thousands of dollars in the United States.
If you are in the financial position to pay for a quality travel insurance policy, you’ll do yourself a favor by protecting yourself against the unknown cost of medical expenses, even if you feel that you can safely take on the financial risk without coverage.
Deciding Whether Travel Insurance Is Necessary For a Given Trip
Even if you have one or more of the reasons above for not necessarily needing travel insurance, it is still important to weigh your options and understand the value of having a trip or travel insurance plan over traveling unprotected.
At the end of the day, a travel insurance plan will likely cost you a fraction of what medical bills will cost you if you seek medical care abroad uninsured. From most policyholder’s experiences, even if you don’t end up filing claims on your travel insurance policy, the value of knowing that you have protection can give you the ultimate peace of mind during your travels.
The extreme financial risk of travel-related expenses as opposed to a comparatively small initial premium payment makes travel insurance a favorable choice for most travelers. To weigh your risks versus your costs, you can calculate your travel insurance quote here.
