What is travel health insurance?

Travel health insurance is the portion of your travel insurance that deals specifically with your health. It deals with the cost of treatment should you become ill or have an accident whilst away from home. It also deals with the possible cost of repatriation should you need to come back to the UK. Furthermore, this portion of travel insurance deals with the cost of cancellation or curtailment of your trip. You need cover for cancellation as you may have bought a non-refundable air ticket, and you need cover for curtailment, as you may have to pay to change the date of your flight. In any case, you will need to prove that your illness is bona fide.

But you also have to make sure that you are completely open with your travel insurer about your medical condition or the medical condition of those in your party who you are also insuring. When I say open, I mean completely open. Do NOT wait for your travel insurer to ask you about pre-existing medical conditions for you or your party when you take your policy out. You could find yourself unable to claim because you have been sold an inappropriate policy that doesn't cover you for all of the eventualities for which you need cover.

Research has shown that more than half of all people buying travel insurance at the same time as their holiday weren't asked about the health of the people travelling on that trip. When people were asked about health, 33% weren't asked about medical conditions that could specifically affect their claiming rights. Also, despite the availability of independent companies who offer more comprehensive and cheaper deals, 64% of all travel insurance policies are being purchased at the same time as the booking of the holiday, through travel agents.

Thus, the person selling them the policy may not be a specialist at selling travel insurance. Thus, that person may not be trained to ask you about specific medical conditions of you or your party. Thus, the insurance that you are sold may not cover you for your needs, and thus could fail you just when you need it most. This could leave you stranded in your destination, needing to foot a very large bill.

What is needed is some form of regulation of the travel agencies so that in the first place no customer is made to feel obliged to pick up travel insurance there. Then the provision of the travel insurance needs to be closely monitored so that holidaymakers, should they be buying travel insurance, are allowed to discuss their needs and sold the best policy for them.

© AskFinancially.com 2008

Travel Insurance

Insurance & Loans

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What is travel health insurance?

© AskFinancially.com 2008

Travel Insurance

Insurance & Loans

Copyright