Our travel insurance will cover us for Covid if we get sick, but does not cover lockdowns, cancellations, etc. due to increased number of Covid cases.
And because of this thread, I remembered that I have to check my health insurance because I plan to be in the U.S. longer than 30 days next year. Because we are normally in the U.S. every year for at least 2 weeks, we just have U.S. coverage included in our basic health insurance.
Health insurance in Switzerland is required, but it is not national health insurance.
And I should probably see if we’re covered in the U.K. At least the EU coverage is already known.
And we carry worldwide emergency evacauation insurance, which is also good for getting us off the side of mountains. It’s not very expensive, and can be very valuable.
The issue for Canadians is that health care in the USA is significantly more than what it costs in Canada. The health system will, as I understand, reimburse the amount they would have paid the local system for the same treatment, but that is a small fraction of what the bill in the USA could have been.
I assume the issue for Americans is the reverse, their health insurance (for those that have it) is getting a bargain, paying far less if the patient gets treated outside the USA. Indeed, there’s a whole “medical tourism” industry apparently, where getting something like a hip replacement, dental implants or such in Mexico or India is far cheaper than the cost in the USA for those who need to pay the bill themselves.
The thing is, many American medical insurance plans specifically exclude any treatment that occurs outside the US. I know Medicare does. So even Americans should get travel insurance, in many cases.
You would think so - but it’s not at all uncommon for US plans to cover nothing outside of the US. There are some that won’t even cover non-emergency care in the entire US - they will cover emergency care “out-of-area” , but the “area” where they will cover routine and urgent care is a couple of states or possibly even just a few counties. Medicare ( for those over 65) definitely doesn’t cover care outside the US except in very limited circumstances.* That’s why I pointed out that I don’t need travel insurance for the medical coverage- many people who have coverage in the US still need to buy medical coverage for trips out of the country
On the one hand , it’s sort of good for US citizens that the costs of medical care in other countries is less - but if my US insurance doesn’t cover me in another country, it might not be all that helpful that the bill is $18K rather than $40K.
* The emergency happened in the US and the foreign hospital is closer than the nearest appropriate US hospital or the foreign hospital is the closest to your US home even if it’s not an emergency or the person must have a medical emergency in Canada while traveling from Alaska to another state by the most direct route possible.
We hosted students from Canada several years in a row - and their program included an insurance policy to handle emergency care.
Only had to use it once: my husband took one student skiing, he (the student) fell, and slid downhill head first until he stopped - by running into a ski lift support pole. He seemed fine, but we made him go to the ER anyway to be evaluated due to the possibility of a head injury (he WAS wearing a helmet).
And one other student, I wish we’d dragged her to the doctor - she had type 1 diabetes, which from what we understood, she was NOT good about handling.
We are in the U.S. Five of us traveled to Canada last year for a one week vacation. I purchased medical coverage for all of us. The cost was $212.24. Here are the terms from the agreement:
Plan Type: Comprehensive
Total Policy Cost: $212.24
Available to: U.S. Residents
Trip Cancellation: $600
Interrupt For Any Reason: Not Available
Trip Interruption: $900
Financial Default: 10 day wait, if purchased within 21 days of Initial Trip Payment
Terrorism in Itinerary City: Foreign and U.S. Domestic
Cancel For Any Reason: Not Selected 75% of non-refundable trip cost [requires purchase within 21 days of Initial Trip Payment and certain conditions are met]
Travel Baggage: $2,500, $300 per article limit, $500 combined max. for specified items
Travel Baggage Delay: 8+ hours, $600 max.
Travel Delay: 6+ hours, $150/day, $2,000 max.
Vacation Rental Damage: Not Applicable
Medical: $250,000
Dental: $750 included in Medical
Emergency Medical Evacuation: $1,000,000
Repatriation of Remains: $1,000,000
Pre-Existing Conditions Waiver: If insurance purchased prior to or on the day of Final Trip Payment and certain conditions are met
Pre-Existing Condition Period: 90 Days
Insurance Company: (deleted)
A.M. Best Rating: A+
Refund Policy: 10 Day Review Period
Rental Car Collision/Loss (per policy): $35,000
Accidental Death - 24-Hour: $25,000
Accidental Death - Common Carrier: $50,000
Accidental Death - Flight: Included in Accidental Death Common Carrier
Travel Supplier Restrictions: None
Pet Medical Expense: $250
My mother-in-law had a nasty fall while visiting Las Vegas and broke her leg. She had travel insurance, so after two weeks in the hospital, her insurance agency flew her back to Israel to continue her treatment.
A month later, the American hospital wrote her an urgent email, demanding a significant sum of money. She referred them to her insurance agency, which was supposed to cover 100% of all expenses. Except they kept on writing and calling her, demanding that she pay. She started getting more and more worried, until I explained to her that the U.S. healthcare industry was basically a criminal extortion racket, and that she was out of their reach. They kept on writing her for a few more years and then gave up.
I have just arranged 12 months’ multi-trip travel insurance to Europe for my wife and me. Because of pre-existing conditions, the cost was not far short of £1000.
Out of curiosity, I asked what it would have cost if we had been travelling to the USA. He said that it would be a least double, but wasn’t sure that they would be prepared to cover us.
Similar thing with my aunt around ten years ago. Except it wasn’t anything as complicated as a broken leg. One overnight hospital stay for “observation” as she presented with chest pains and dizziness upon disembarking from a 14 hour flight and going through customs and immigration. She was in her 80s.
My mother is still getting letters and calls from collections. My aunt died almost three years ago. Numerous “providers” were sending bills for years to my parents’ address because when she went to the ER they wanted a local address, not one in Pakistan and not a hotel.
The combined billing for the ER visit and one night in hospital was over $10,000. She had travel insurance, but it was one where you had to pay and file for reimbursement. She had zero confidence that she would be reimbursed anything more than a small fraction of what she paid. So she told my parents to just toss the bills.
Collections people are scum. They know the debt they purchased is uncollectible , but they keep trying to convince my mother that they are in some way responsible for the debt of a deceased relative.
My aunt was a world traveler for over 20 years, spending a few months of each year in one of Canada, USA, UK, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Kenya, etc. She had many medical issues in the second half of that 20 years. But in every other country she had to pay hundreds of a couple thousand dollars even for hospitalization. I think in one country (New Zealand?) they told her there was no way for them to collect anything from her, so just forget about it.
She never returned to the US after that incident. She said we had chosen to live in a country run by gangsters, so she wasn’t going to visit us any more!
I wonder if the mail was from a collection agency presenting itself as the hospital but specializing in collecting debts they’ve purchased from others. Collection agencies make the medical system look angelic by comparison, and American collection agencies are notorious - to the point where there are serious laws that allegedly limit what they can do - if followed. Apparently they have no qualms about trying to con the bereaved into paying the debts of a deceased relative that the survivors have zero obligation to pay. When a person dies with a negative estate value, the outstanding debt dies with them. They also seem to have difficulty adjusting their records when presented with circumstances that show the alleged debt is an error.
I’ve cited an example here before about medical costs: a friend’s kids were on a youth group trip in Europe, when the younger kid (about 14) decided that appendicitis would be more fun than travel. He was hospitalized and had an appendectomy in Budapest.
The parents were looking at getting an emergency credit line increase to pay for it… then they saw the bill for the surgery and several days in the hospital.
600 dollars.
So as far as bargains go, yes (in their case). That likely varies by country. Dunno what someone would get billed for the same thing in Toronto.
To the best of my knowledge, however, US-based medical insurance generally doesn’t pay anything for overseas treatment - except possibly for an emergency. You’d need to check your own insurance coverage (Medicare / Medicaid is a hard no, as I understand it).
Medical tourism is a thing, however, because there are countries that have the fun combination of good medicine (at least for those with means), reasonable costs, and English-speaking medical staff. Googling turns up some conflicting info, some sites list Canada near the top. Mexico, Costa Rica, Thailand, and India also appear on a lot of the lists.
All that said: even in a country with reasonable costs, I have to assume things could add up and I’d be nervous about extended out-of-country travel without some kind of safety net.
The biggest deal is repatriation. Sure, if you break a bone while on holiday in the UK, treatment is not going to break the bank. If you hit your head and develop serious complications you may well want to go home, where not only will you be covered by your own insurance, but also your friends and relatives can visit.
A flight on a commercial airline with a medical attendant can cost £tens of thousands.
A fellow my husband used to work with was in France, on business, when he was slammed into by a bicyclist. He was taken to a hospital for treatment, and as it turned out, so was the cyclist (who otherwise would not have gotten caught). He broke a femur - and had to remain in traction.
The airline said “we can fly you home, but we want 20,000 dollars as we’ll have to take out 4 first-class seats to accommodate your bed / traction”. Ouch.
Luckily (?), he was travelling on business - for a DoD agency - and THEY got him home. IIRC (this was nearly 30 years ago) he was gotten onto a military transport or something. Not terribly comfortable, but he made it home and spent a couple weeks in a hospital near home.
When my son travelled to Europe a few years back, I was slack about looking into insurance for his trip - and by the time I did so, it was too late to get real medical coverage. I did get an inexpensive policy to cover repatriation expenses. IIRC, it would also have handled a situation where HE was not injured / sick, but there was some kind of health emergency in the location (pandemic, earthquake or whatever).
Medivac is one of the Air Force Mobility Command’s* specialties, and they love to have the authorized opportunity to practice on a willing patient. And generally speaking they’re quite good at it.
*30 years ago, it may have been calling itself Military Airlift Command.
I recall a case in the news about a decade or two ago where a woman was visiting Canada from Poland and went into premature labour with minor complications and a certain amount of hospital stay for her and the baby. Apparently she was presented with a bill for the astronomical sum of $20,000.
OTOH, when we were planning a trip to Egypt, I think it was a thread on one of the travel sites that mentioned some tourist hospitalized in Egypt, and the hospital wouldn’t let him go until payment had been arranged - so the site advised not only insurance, but having the details of your travel insurance handy.
My daughter, Moon Unit , was born 6 weeks early and spent 17 days in the NICU. Her bill was something like 60,000 dollars - nearly 26 years ago. I’m quite sure insurance negotiated that down a fair bit, but I remember getting the bill in the mail - it was the size of a fairly thick magazine.
Canadian snowbird has a stroke while on winter vacation in Arizona.
Blue Cross denies medical coverage.
Reason: three months before travelling, his anti-cholesterol prescription was changed from 10 milligrams to 20 milligrams.
Family will be on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars (US). Already paid $56,000 (CAN) to have him flown back to Canada once he stabilised enough for transport.
I’m starting to wonder if I’ll ever go back to the United States.
It is ridiculous for them to refuse coverage for such a small change but here’s the pre-existing condition section of a travel insurance policy I have used :
Pre-Existing Condition means an illness, disease, or other condition during the sixty (60) day period immediately prior to
the Effective Date for which the Insured, Traveling Companion or Family Member booked to travel with the Insured: 1)exhibited symptoms which would have caused one to seek care or treatment; or 2) received or received a recommendation for a test, examination, or medical treatment or 3) took or received a prescription for drugs or medicine. Item (3) of this definition does not apply to a condition which is treated or controlled solely through the taking of prescription drugs or medicine and remains treated or controlled without any adjustment or change in the required prescription throughout the sixty (60) day period before the Effective Date
I assume the snowbird’s insurance had a similar clause. ( although probably a different time period) Like I said, it’s ridiculous to deny coverage for such a small change but I’m not sure how they could exclude pre-existing conditions that require medication changes otherwise - they can’t exactly say “going from 10 mg to 20 mg daily of drug A will not invalidate coverage but going from .75 mg weekly to 4.5 mg weekly of drug B will invalidate coverage” and list possible changes for every possible drug.
That’s true, but in most insurance law, there’s the concept of the fiduciary duty, that the insurer owes to the beneficiary. That duty normally excludes “gotchas!” by the insurance company, where they pore over the policy to find some minor breach that allows a complete denial of coverage.
Maybe that doesn’t apply to health insurance companies in the US - dunno.