Travel insurance is an essential for traveling, whether you are going on a family vacation or a business trip. When starting to look into Travel Insurance you may be a little lost and a little overwhelmed by all the choices. Though it may seem like there is a lot that goes into it, it can be quite simple if it is laid out for you. There are two types of Travel Insurance: Vacation Plans and Travel Medical Plans.
Vacation plans, as you probably know, is a great plan for those going on a vacation. You may also know them as: “Package Plans, Travel Insurance, Trip Cancellation Insurance, or Trip Insurance.” What very few people realize is that “over 95% of travel insurance sales are Vacation Plans”. A Vacation Plan is an incredible way to be covered especially if you run into any unforeseen situations. Vacation Plans cover: “canceled trips, interrupted trips, medical emergencies, emergency evacuation, delayed baggage or trips, lost baggage, and 24/7 assistance,” along with other types of coverage as well.” The second type of insurance is the Travel Medical Plan.
The Travel Medical Plan will cover you when you are on a trip out of your homeland, but will not cover cancellations like the Vacation Plan does. One thing that can be overlooked when traveling is considering if your health insurance plan, which you have in your country, will cover you once you leave your country. In some situations, you might be covered, but this is very rare. Make sure that you check with your health insurance company before purchasing a Travel Medical plan so you do not have two types of insurance that cover the same thing. The travel medical plan will cover two things, which would otherwise be very expensive for you to pay out of pocket. It will cover: “medical expenses, and emergency evacuation”. It is crucial to have this kind of coverage or you will possibly end up paying tens of thousands of dollars to cover your medical expenses in the destination country.
In addition to the vacation plan and the travel medical insurance plan, there are special plans that cover specific situations. You can purchase: Evacuation Plans, Travel Accident Plans, and Rental Car Plans. Evacuation plans are for medical emergencies and cover your transportation to the best hospital facility. Accident plans are primarily for injuries that result in dismemberment or loss of life. Rental car plans cover you for accidents you may have while driving a rental car. The most important thing is that you purchase either a vacation plan or travel medical insurance plan when going on a trip. Any of the three additional plans would be great to look at once you know the type of traveling you will be doing and the situations that you may run into.
Tracy McManamon is a consultant at One Source Benefits. He helps clients choose from a slew of travel medical insurance plans from leading travel insurance providers.