The Dangers of Travelling Without Travel Insurance

“One of our friends crossed the border to come for a visit. I used to hop over the border when I was a kid all the time, it was no big deal to me, but I didn’t know any better. Our friend went down to Seattle to visit some friends for Christmas and she fell down a set of stairs and hit her head on a table at the bottom of the stairs and in a heartbeat she went from being a high functioning, contributing member of society and the next she’s in the ICU suffering from a traumatic brain injury. Her parents had to go down and burn through thousands of dollars every day.”

Unfortunately, it was far too easy to find a friend with a personal experience related to the pitfalls of declining travel insurance. For example, in early in 2017 a woman from Kelowna was travelling in Thailand and racked up an $80,000 hospital bill after suffering a brain aneurism. Her flight home came with a $150,000 bill. Read more about it here.

Things happen when you least expect them.

What is a Deductible?

A deductible is the amount of eligible medical expenses that must be paid by the insured before the insurance company begins to reimburse for covered expenses. For example, if you purchase a plan with a $50 deductible and incur $200 of expenses, the insurance company will begin to reimburse for expenses after you have paid the first $50 of your medical bills.

There are two different kinds of deductibles, per-claim and per-policy period. A per claim deductible means the insured must pay a new deductible for each separate incident.

For example, you’d pay the deductible once for a broken leg and then a second time for a flu treatment.

A per-policy period deductible means that the insured must pay the deductible only once during the period of the insurance policy. If your plan has a $100 deductible, you pay the first $100 of the expenses and then the insurance company picks up the rest. The higher the deductible, the lower the premium cost and vice versa.

What Counts as a Pre-Existing Condition?

Let’s say you’ve just booked a vacation to a remote mountain lodge in the backwoods of Washington State. You’re an experienced hiker, you’ve got everything you could possibly need, and people know where and for how long you’re going.

But things still happen to the most experienced of us.

Generally pre-existing conditions are defined as any sickness, injury, or medical condition for which the insured consulted a physician, has symptoms, has been hospitalized, or was prescribed medications within a certain period before the effective date of coverage. Each insurance company treats pre-existing conditions differently and this is a major reason for declined medical claims.

The look back period may vary from 3 months to a life time. Make sure you’re completely aware of your coverage as it pertains to pre-existing conditions.

For instance, we have insurance plans in which coverage for stable pre-existing conditions is possible for certain travellers.

Sure, travel insurance costs money. But the peace of mind you’ll enjoy on your trip? Well, that’s certainly worth it, not to mention the headache you avoid if you travel without health coverage and the unthinkable happens.

Protect yourself, people!

Categorised in: Uncategorized

This post was written by Marco Faccone