Friday 16 March 2012

What Travel Insurance cover?


The scope of Travel insurance coverage varies from insurer to insurer.

Usually It may cover the following:

1. Travel Medical expenses - Travel insurance may cover the medical expenses that could occur while travelling. This expenses may include the hospitalisation charges, Medicinal cost and evacuation costs.

2. Baggage Insurance - Travel insurance may cover for the lost baggage. It provides reimbursement for the stolen baggage.

3. Trip cancellation - Some time due to illness, the trips may be cancelled and this may be be covered by the Travel insurance. It may also cover the situations like .... you become sick during your trip and you need to cancel the travel and return home.

4. Trip delay - Some insurers provide reimbursement for delays in trips like delay in departure time of flight.

5.  Flight Insurance - Covers Accidental Death & Dismemberment while you are traveling on the commercial aircraft.

Apart from all these most of the insurance companies provides a 24 hour help line for their customers to assist them in handling various tight situations that could happen while they are on their trip.

There is an insurer which provides 24 hour Assistance to their customers and strictly use medical professionals to answer their emergency assistance lines. That means during a medical emergency, where minutes can save lives, an insured's call for assistance is answered immediately by a real doctor or nurse. There is no screening process and no waiting on hold for an available nurse.

The cost of the insurance you opted depends on your age. If you are Young the trip rate will be low. Travel medical and evacuation plans are quite inexpensive, especially if you are young.

Purchasing a Travel insurance from a trusted insurer will :-

protect your financial investment
protect your personal items while traveling
cover the high medical costs that could occur during your trip
protect your health and well-being.
cover the cost of being evacuated to a medical center  or back home.

Finally the Peace of mind..

So next time when you travel Make sure, You had purchased a Travel Medical Insurance....Safe Travels

Friday 27 January 2012

Travel Insurance for Kids!

Travelling with kids? They need travel insurance, too!

The Travel Heath Insurance Association of Canada recently released a travel warning for March Break travellers.

The article talks of the important fact that while a parent maybe careful while travelling, children are usually excited and unaware of their new surroundings; and therefore not careful and perhaps more susceptible to having an accident.

Though, accidents are not the only peril one should consider. The imune systems of children are often more fragile than that of an adult. Travel in new places and countries bring the risk of infection. Whether from sanitary conditions of the hotel/resort, or from new foods or bugs therein; an infection can potentially lead to several days in a foreign hospital.

If you believe the comments by Medipac Travel Insurance: "Travel Medical Insurance claims can often cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, or upwards of $20,000 per day in a foreign hospital.". Most families would not be able to afford a prolonged sickness of their child. Perhaps this is why provincial governments often remind the public of the importance of travelling with proper travel medical insurance.

One source of government travel warning is DFAIT - Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada.

This agency publishes several FREE booklets that are key to travel. The most related to this blog is the Bon Voyage But...

Have a look at their other publications are well, they do provide some interesting facts about travel.


Thursday 19 January 2012

Insurance for Travel to Hurricane Alley

Typically, if there is a travel warning issued by a government organization that suggest restricting travel to a particular area on the globe, travel insurance will not cover any loses that may occur in those destinations.While most travel warnings are issued to address unrest in developing countries or war zones, during the hurricane season governments will also issue warnings against travel to such areas as  Hurricane Alley.

Here is a link to travel warnings issued by the United States.



Other travel related organizations also issue warnings, not about travel, but about the importance of purchasing proper travel insurance, or knowing what your travel insurance policy will cover in such locations and events. A few examples of such organizations are the Travel Health Insurance Association of Canada (or of the United States), and the Canadian Snowbird Association.

Here is a link of travel warnings, compiled by an insurer, posted by Canadian government organizations.

"Hurricane Alley is an area of warm water in the Atlantic Ocean stretching from the west coast of northern Africa to the east coast of central America and Gulf Coast of the southern United States. Many hurricanes form within this area."

"Traditionally, hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30, with the peak occurring during August and September, although major storms have also caused considerable personal and property damage in July and October in recent years."


Here's a company that when a hurricane passed through Florida, the travel insurance company, during the off travel season for Canadians, went to inspect the damage of their clients' winter homes. How's that for an impressive level of service?



Thursday 5 January 2012

Dual Benefits of Travel Insurance



Most of the travellers who travel outside country would admit that financial saftey is as important as health safety. Here comes the importance of Travel insurance. A good Travel insurance policy from a reputable trust worthy insurer can assure travellesr with both financial and health safety.

As you know the medical expenses in countries like US are high, So, It is very important that the people who are traveling outside their country should be properly insured to meet the unfortunate health issue which might happen during their travels If you are holding a provincial insurance, make sure sure what is the scope of coverage of that isurance. If not covers the emergencies outside country, then make sure to purchase a travel health insurance form a reputed private insurer which can cover the medical emergencies outside your country.

Canadian Snowbird Association and Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs advises Canadian travellers or Snowbirds who travels to United States during Winter to have a travel protection plan with proper coverage. Have a look on the Travel insurance plan suggested by Canadian Snowbird Association.

Travel insurance - a key component to safe travelling

Here's a great article by the CBC. It talks about all those little things that a person needs to remember when travelling. You'll note that even in the comments to the article, that readers have recognized that when travelling, financial safety is just as, or more, important as health safety.

That is where travel insurance comes in. travel medical insurance actually address both issues; health and financial issues. And both the Canadian Snowbird Association and the Department of Foreign Affairs stress the importance of having a travel protection plan with proper coverage.

In addition to having proper travel coverage, "MacKenzie also advises Canadians to be aware of the rules that exist for how long a person can be outside a home province before losing health coverage; also for long visitors can stay in a host country as a tourist.". These are important issues to consider when you are an avid traveller. According to some provinces, residents will lose their health benefits should they remain outside their province and or Canada for a period greater than (usually) six months.

There are some provinces that understand that many seniors travel for six months outside, but also travel inside the Canada. An example of this is Ontario or Newfoundland. These provinces permit their residents to travel outside their provinces up to 212 days in any particular year. All other provinces limit travel to 183 days.

Resident however can make appeals to their home province ministries of health to revieve extensions to these limitations. The same goes for travel insurance.

Some companies, like Medipac Travel Insurance (endorse by the Canadian Snowbird Association), actually have rates that extend to 212 days for travellers from Ontario and Newfoundland. Also, where travellers have received extensions from their resident ministries of health, some travel health insurance companies can use this evidence to offer extend travel insurance.

Should you be one of those travellers that apply for such extensions, note that travel insurance premiums are not linear. The longer you are travelling the greater risk of a medical emergency taking place. As such, the increase in premium for the additional travel protection will be mildly exponential - proportionately greater increases in premium with greater trip lengths.

Happy travels!