Insurance and Traveling Abroad

I don't know about you but I have been completely overwhelmed with information and differing opinions online concerning the many different forms of travel insurance. From trip-cancellation coverage to medical insurance, it has been a bit of a headache trying to navigate the internet to figure out exactly what we need for our trip abroad. If you've been experiencing the same information overload that I have, fear not! This post is an explanation of what Nate and I will be doing in terms of insurance and traveling. I hope that my research will make it a bit easier for you to decide what insurance will be best for you and your family. In this post I cover the three most popular types of insurance needed for travel according to my research and past experience, and then I will explain what coverage we will be using for our three month backpacking trip across Europe. 

1. Trip Cancellation.
Nate's paternal grandparents are both elderly and feeble, as is my grandmother, so we purchased trip-cancellation insurance in case something like a death happens right before we leave and we cannot go out of town or need to come home early. We were able to get our tickets through the use of sky miles so the added cost was very minuscule for each ticket and we figured that it was worth the peace of mind. To be specific, Delta explains our insurance as follows:

Coverage includes Trip Cancellation/ Interruption coverage that reimburses prepaid, unused, non-refundable travel expenses should your trip be cancelled or interrupted due to any covered reason.

If there is a death in the family or any other conflict arises, we will be reimbursed for the cost of our tickets. I would strongly recommend that everyone get trip cancellation insurance because I have been on many trips when one or more family members have either missed a flight, lost a job or otherwise had something come up that required them to leave early or outright prevented them from traveling with at all. In those instances we learned the hard way and had to pay to cancel the trip or to book another flight. As a rule of thumb, the further you travel from home, the more necessary travel insurance becomes. Think carefully about what risks you're taking by not purchasing insurance... is it worth it to potentially dish out thousands to get home in an emergency?

Medical Insurance.
Nate and I are elated because I recently found out that our health insurance policy covers emergency medical visits anywhere around the world! This is great news because it means that we will not need to purchase any travel insurance for our backpacking trip. According to Rick Steves, sometimes purchasing supplemental traveler's health insurance can be a good idea depending on your medical history, but Nate and I decided that emergency coverage will be enough for us, even if that means that we need to pay upfront and be reimbursed by our insurance company later. We figure that we'll be traveling in the summer outside of cold and flu season, so emergency coverage will be the most useful for us in case one or both of us gets in an accident and has to visit the emergency room. Again, this may be different from your family's needs, but we are thankfully young and healthy and are fortunate enough to have a doctor in the family who will be a phone call or email away if we have any other medical questions. This physician has also been kind enough to offer us a medical "care package" in case we get sick in any way and need medications to treat the illness or infection. This is an excellent idea to avoid any trips to the hospital or pharmacy on vacation! It might be a good idea to talk to your doctor before you leave about what you can do to prepare for any sickness that might occur while you're away. 

Back to health insurance policies: I haven't done any research on other insurance companies, but it wasn't too difficult for me to find out whether or not my health insurance company (Aetna) covered any services done internationally. Here is what Aetna says about insurance coverage outside of the US: 

What emergency coverage do I have while I am traveling? 
We cover emergency care 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – anywhere in the world. Generally speaking, an emergency is a situation when you could reasonably expect that the absence of immediate medical attention would result in serious jeopardy to your health, or if you are a pregnant woman, to the health of your unborn child. This definition may vary based on state regulations.

To find out what your insurance company will cover in other countries you can usually either call or go online to get an idea of what they will cover. Calling and talking to a representative will give you an exact answer on what your specific policy will cover, and going online should give you a general idea of what your insurance company will pay for on all policies.

Collision Insurance.
Every time we go to Hawaii we always get a rental car or two, depending on how many people we travel with. It's nice to have the freedom to drive wherever you want to, whenever you want to. We usually get the cheapest policy from the company we are renting from and we only insure one driver per car. Sometimes this gets tricky when someone else wants to use the car, so if you take this route be sure to insure only those who are safe drivers and who are willing to drive someone else around if they want to go somewhere. For our trip to Europe, we will be renting two cars in Germany and the UK so we can travel further than where we are staying, and I am sure we will insure one driver per car since we will all be traveling together and the drives won't be too long. We booked our cars from www.rentalcars.com and were able to score an awesome deal that allowed us to insure two drivers per car for no added cost. If you're looking to book a rental car for long distances and need to insure two drivers, consider checking out some of the deals that they offer on this website. Also, be sure to look up your own auto insurance benefits before you leave; some policies automatically include rental insurance, so check before you pay unnecessary insurance costs abroad!

As I mentioned before, Rick Steves has gives a great rundown of all travel insurance needs on his website. I recommend reading what he has to say as well, because he knows the ins and outs of travel better than anyone else in the world!

If you have any questions for me, feel free to comment below and I will answer as best I can!