Thursday, June 9, 2011

Benefits of Travel Insurance over Conventional Medical Insurance ...

Article by anubhav kapoor

Travel insurance is essentially a form of short-term medical insurance. Due to this basic definition of travel insurance products, many people often mistake travel insurance to be something similar to their medical insurance plans. It should be understood that travel medical insurance is very different from the conventional life insurance or medical insurance plans. Yes, like any other form of insurance, vacation insurance too is aimed at providing financial coverage against various types of risks, but travel insurance is a highly specialized field. International travelers need to understand this difference in detail.

Unlike medical insurance plans that are often offered by employers or purchased by people along with their life insurance policies, visitors travel medical insurance plans are a bundled product that cover more than just securing the medical crisis of the insured. The most significant examples of such benefits are:

Benefit 1: Coverage against thefts or loss of baggageVisitors insurance is perhaps the only type of medical insurance product that also includes insurance against loss of baggage during the scheduled travel or theft of visa documents when traveling abroad. Such insurance features are added intentionally, i.e. to ensure that the insurance plan is able to extend coverage beyond just the healthcare aspect. The entire idea is to ensure that once a traveler has bough visitor?s insurance, he doesn?t need to look at any other form of insurance for safeguarding his financial safety and health.

Benefit 2: Medical evacuations and repatriation of bodily remainsWhile your conventional medical insurance plan is aimed at covering your hospitalization costs, visitor health insurance plans are more comprehensive. These plans offer extended features such as covering the financial costs needed when seeking emergency evacuation. Emergency evacuation insurance might seem a bit far-fetched to some folks. However, just look at the newspaper and you can get an idea of the thousands of overseas visitors who are stuck everyday due to flight disturbance precipitated by terrorist activities or climatic hazards. In such a scenario, a passenger covered by travel insurance can seek an alternate route of traveling and the charges would be paid by the insurance provider. Such services are very expensive and may even include air-lifting using airplanes and medical assistance through air-ambulances. The un-insured traveler can?t even contemplate requesting such services due to the magnitude of bills they would put forth.

Benefit 3: Extent of CustomizationTravel medical insurance plans retailed by the more accomplished insurance providers are more customizable than any conventional medical insurance product. This fact is best exemplified by the liberty given in the purchase of travel insurance. The insurance providers are increasingly allowing students based in international destinations to buy insurance on behalf of their parents settled elsewhere, i.e. without the need to furnish any documents determining the health status of the parents. Similarly, the insured can control everything from dictating the last hour in the start date of the plan to the kind of coverage he wants. For instance, visitor?s insurance plans include a list of diseases or medical conditions for which they would not be providing coverage. However, if the insured is suffering from any of these listed diseases, he can always make a request to accommodate his case. Most of the bigger travel insurance providers are ready to make adjustments at slightly extra premium charges. This kind of flexibility is rarely seen in conventional medical insurance contracts.

Benefit 4: Travel Insurance Plans are effective overseasPerhaps, the most distinguishing difference between these two kinds of medical insurance is that travel health insurance plans are accepted overseas whereas a typical medical insurance policy bought in your country of origin is highly likely to be rejected. The best example in this case is that of the US. One of the world?s most tourist-friendly nations, it does not accept medical insurance bought from a source that doesn?t have a presence in America itself. Further, most of the international travel insurance plans enjoy global acceptability and thus, the insured or his family members don?t need to be worried about the issue of their insurance being denied when traveling overseas.

About the Author

Visitors planning an overseas trip should browse through travel medical insurance overview to gain a basic understanding of visitor?s insurance. Those planning to purchase travel insurance should compare global health insurance listed on NRIOL.com

Related Medical Insurance Articles

Source: http://www.hanoverinsurance.org/benefits-of-travel-insurance-over-conventional-medical-insurance/

days inn siesta beach nba finals schedule air france 447 eddie long adam ant kevin mchale

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.