(I don’t see any threads on this that are less than 10 years old)
I am looking for health-related - not trip cancellation - type of insurance for traveling abroad from the U.S.
Thanks!
mmm
If you live in the US, will you be traveling outside the country? Have you checked what out-of-network coverage you have with your current health insurance?
Do you mean to reimburse you if a health problem forces you to cancel the vacation? Pay for medical care if you have health related expenses while on vacation?
You can get trip insurance from many sites where you book your travel plans. These usually cover accidents and trip related delays, not medical conditions. Although they may provide emergency evacuation back to the USA.
For more comprehensive health care you can look at Cigna or Allianz as they are two of the major ones that provide global coverage. They may not cover preexisting conditions.
Some Medicare Advantage plans include a limited amount of coverage while traveling abroad. But I believe you pay out of pocket first and then the reimburse you later as the won’t bill Medicare overseas.
Certain insurance is only applicable to specific countries. For instance I plan on using Pacific Cross when I move to the Phillipines next year and dropping Medicare. I have also dropped 30 pounds and lowered my HA1C to under 6 so I don’t get hit with a preexisting condition denial. I’ll post more about my move soon.
Where are you traveling and for how long will determine your cost.
Not trip cancellation, more like if I end up in ER for some reason.
mmm
Yeah, I’m not looking to have my glaucoma treated. I’m more interested in what happens if I come down with acute appendicitis, break a bone, etc.
Emergency evac to the US sounds like a good coverage to have.
mmm
Your regular health insurance should cover emergency type expenses when abroad. Check into that.
You’d have to get reimbursed and it would probably be a giant pain in the ass fight but it would be the same for secondary insurance too.
Allianz is the standard worldwide product. Rather than buying it by the trip which can get expensive, they offer a yearly medical plus medevac coverage.
Start here: Emergency Medical Travel Insurance | Allianz Partners and you’ll be well-informed in no time.
Note they have several categories of insurance. The ones that insure your cruise or non-refundable airfare in case you can’t meet the trip are rather expensive. The ones that just cover medical, which is the page I referenced, are much more reasonable.
It’s “travel health insurance,” and a lot of companies offer it. A good policy will also pay for you to be transported back home, if you get severely ill while you are traveling.
I’ve never bought it myself, but worked on marketing the policies for one of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies. You can get it for a fairly short period of time (i.e., just to cover the time period of your trip).
Here’s a link to the Blue Cross sales site. I’d suggest taking a look at a few different sellers, to compare costs and coverage, but it’s usually not tremendously expensive.
I have used insuremytrip.com before. It compares plans across many of the providers listed in this thread.
I generally get a policy with a pretty high medical emergency and evacuation policy. Never had to use it, but does give a bit of peace of mind. Generally relatively cheap.
It’s the “cancel for any reason” policies that can be pricy, as well as ones with large coverages for delays or lost luggage.
I also believe some credit cards (particularly ones branded as “travel” cards) have some coverage for lost bags and delayed flights.
That’s what I use every time we vacation in Canada. For our last trip I chose Aegis Travel Insurance.
Have never had to use it, so can’t vouch for it, unfortunately.
When I worked for Nissan (and before that Bose) and traveled overseas they obtained a separate travel insurance policy for me since our regular insurance was not valid in other countries, including Japan which seemed odd to me since they were a Japanese company.
I’m just assuming MMM is on Medicare because I seem to recall he was retired. If he has private Health insurance then definitely contact them.
The problem with just about all US insurance is that there is no way set up for an overseas hospital to bill them. So then you have to pay out of pocket first unless you have travel insurance. Some countries will not let you leave the hospital, let alone the country until the bill is paid in full.
As I understand it, U.S. health insurance, generally, isn’t accepted by providers outside the U.S., unless you have a special rider on it.
Foreign companies which have operations and employees in the U.S. almost undoubtedly offer U.S.-based health insurance for their American employees.
Ninjaed my update.
Great minds think alike simulpost. 
The second paragraph of my post explained that you’d have to get reimbursed from the insurance company. Of course foreign hospitals don’t take US insurance
WE just purchased a trip on Amtrak Vacation form Chicago to Glacier Ntl. Park. Included in the price was “travel insurance” I have net yet discovered what exactly is insured since we will be in the US the whole time. (WE both have medicare). I will report on what it is about
This is probably the “other” sort of travel insurance, which several people mentioned upthread: in case you have to cancel your trip or cut it short, it lets you get a refund for what would otherwise be non-refundable payments (train tickets, deposits, etc.)
Also might pay for “lost” luggage. Often times only enough to pay for the luggage itself and not the expensive new cloths and shoes you packed.
Every time I buy airline tickets, the airline website pushes the travel insurance as an extra cost option. I assume that it’s a high margin profit center for the airline.