As I may have mentioned, I take advantage of a high-deductible health insurance plan one can find on ehealthinsurance.com (a great deal, provided you are young, healthy and unlikely to get sick…). Planning our epic Peru trip, I called Aetna to see if my coverage would apply out of country. It does, the chap on the phone told me, but any care I receive would be considered out of network and reimbursed at a lower rate.
Bi-planes and other delights ...
Just for fun (and what’s more exciting than a little risk management?), I checked the rates for health insurance at bootsnall.com, where I found health insurance for my ’round the world trip. To my pleasant surprise, the cost for a 10-day policy that covers full medical evacuation and a raft of other terrifying emergency-related things costs only $13.
Even with my existing policy in force, that’s a good deal and I’ll likely take them up on it. One of my friends once broke his leg climbing in Ecuador. While surgery there would only have cost $50, he, probably wisely, elected to change his ticket and fly back to the U.S. for the operation. Things happen, and for $13 I’ll sleep a little better in my developing-world hotel room knowing that any unfortunate mishaps on my trip at least won’t set me back the price of a mid-sized sedan.
Don’t confuse travel insurance policies focused on medical coverage with those that insure the costs of the entire trip, though. Policies designed to cover committed expenses like plane tickets or guided trips in the event you have to cancel are a lot more expensive and rarely worth it. As Budget Travel magazine notes in its October issue this month, only 2 percent of policies result in a claim, while insurance companies take in an average $1.6 billion each year for travel insurance.
