International medical insurance for short trips?

[Sojourner]

DW and I will be heading overseas soon for a fairly short trip to several countries in Europe. I will be there for about two weeks and she'll be there slightly longer visiting some old friends. I'm leaning towards purchasing a medical insurance policy for us, as I would always do for any trip lasting more than three weeks or for trips to more "dangerous" regions. But this situation is not as clear cut to me.

How do you decide whether to purchase a medical insurance policy for overseas trips? Is there a "number of days" cutoff, or is it more (or less) complicated than that? Or do you simply always do it?

 

[OldShooter]

Our insurance agent put us into a BCBS Advantage plan specifically because it covers us when we are out of the country. I have never paid attention to the details, though. You might want to check with your current insurance provider. You may already be covered or it may be possible to change to another policy in their offerings.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

I am 61 and retired and in my "international travel whenever I can phase of life". I now always purchase a plan that specifically covers medical situations. I don't worry about travel insurance to cover cancelled trips, lost luggage, change of plans, etc. That money, I can write off. But the medical situations can be very expensive.

I started off by purchasing single trip insurance, but now just purchase an annual policy that covers multiple trips per year. I have settled on GeoBlue as my insurance provider. You can easily see the price of both their single trip and annual plans on their website as well as what the coverage levels are (they offer different tiers of plans with various coverage levels). In the bigger picture, the price is quite affordable. I pay $220 per year for their higher benefit annual policy (1 person). I think I paid about $55 when I was covering just a weeklong cruise.

https://www.geobluetravelinsurance.com

GeoBlue is an affiliate of BlueCross/BlueShield, but they do not require you to be a BC/BS customer to purchase. They do not cover domestic travel at all.

 

[brett]

It makes no difference to me whether we are traveling overseas for few days or for a few months.

We never travel without travel medical and evac. insurance.

We view this as our largest financial risk when traveling.

 

[Markola]

I am 61 and retired and in my "international travel whenever I can phase of life". I now always purchase a plan that specifically covers medical situations. I don't worry about travel insurance to cover cancelled trips, lost luggage, change of plans, etc. That money, I can write off. But the medical situations can be very expensive.

I started off by purchasing single trip insurance, but now just purchase an annual policy that covers multiple trips per year. I have settled on GeoBlue as my insurance provider. You can easily see the price of both their single trip and annual plans on their website as well as what the coverage levels are (they offer different tiers of plans with various coverage levels). In the bigger picture, the price is quite affordable. I pay $220 per year for their higher benefit annual policy (1 person). I think I paid about $55 when I was covering just a weeklong cruise.

https://www.geobluetravelinsurance.com

GeoBlue is an affiliate of BlueCross/BlueShield, but they do not require you to be a BC/BS customer to purchase. They do not cover domestic travel at all.

Thanks for that tip. That’s about what I just paid for a single trip coverage offered by Delta on checkout for my coming Australia trip.

 

[Markola]

And then there’s some kind of medical coverage on my new Delta Reserve AMEX, and probably the Chase Saphire Reserve card, too.

 

[bigreader]

I am 61 and retired and in my "international travel whenever I can phase of life". I now always purchase a plan that specifically covers medical situations. I don't worry about travel insurance to cover cancelled trips, lost luggage, change of plans, etc. That money, I can write off. But the medical situations can be very expensive.

I started off by purchasing single trip insurance, but now just purchase an annual policy that covers multiple trips per year. I have settled on GeoBlue as my insurance provider. You can easily see the price of both their single trip and annual plans on their website as well as what the coverage levels are (they offer different tiers of plans with various coverage levels). In the bigger picture, the price is quite affordable. I pay $220 per year for their higher benefit annual policy (1 person). I think I paid about $55 when I was covering just a weeklong cruise.

https://www.geobluetravelinsurance.com

GeoBlue is an affiliate of BlueCross/BlueShield, but they do not require you to be a BC/BS customer to purchase. They do not cover domestic travel at all.

This.
We have had GeoBlue's mutitrip coverage for over 5 years. No claims, which is exactly how I I like it! My concern is medical evacuation and, to a lesser extent, medical coverage in a foreign country. I will just rely on my credit card for whatever reimbursement they offer for flight cancellations or lost luggage. I can cover urgent care costs, airline fees to reschedule or the cost of contents of a lost suitcase. It's the catastrophic situation where we would need to be airlifted from somewhere like Antarctica that worries me. GeoBlue offers this service at a reasonable price.
BR

 

[2017ish]

I am 61 and retired and in my "international travel whenever I can phase of life". I now always purchase a plan that specifically covers medical situations. I don't worry about travel insurance to cover cancelled trips, lost luggage, change of plans, etc. That money, I can write off. But the medical situations can be very expensive.

I started off by purchasing single trip insurance, but now just purchase an annual policy that covers multiple trips per year. I have settled on GeoBlue as my insurance provider. You can easily see the price of both their single trip and annual plans on their website as well as what the coverage levels are (they offer different tiers of plans with various coverage levels). In the bigger picture, the price is quite affordable. I pay $220 per year for their higher benefit annual policy (1 person). I think I paid about $55 when I was covering just a weeklong cruise.

https://www.geobluetravelinsurance.com

GeoBlue is an affiliate of BlueCross/BlueShield, but they do not require you to be a BC/BS customer to purchase. They do not cover domestic travel at all.

Let me be the third person to join in as being a geoblue annual subscriber. (Although not applicable to the O.P., note that you need a rider if you are gone for more than 70 consecutive days....)

 

[SecondAttempt]

Our insurance agent put us into a BCBS Advantage plan specifically because it covers us when we are out of the country. I have never paid attention to the details, though. You might want to check with your current insurance provider. You may already be covered or it may be possible to change to another policy in their offerings.

When I looked into it I was surprised to learn that both of our regular health insurance policies cover us for urgent and emergency care pretty much anywhere in the world. Typically you have to pay upfront then get reimbursed but their definition of urgent care is pretty broad and even includes getting care for cold or flu. It just doesn't cover routine care like checkups. If I recall correctly I think prescription coverage was pretty limited as well.

The specific companies we have are Kaiser and HMSA (local BCBS partner).

It does not hurt to check. It was a little hard to find the information but I eventual found it and now carry electronic copies of the claim forms with us when we travel.

 

[brett]

I have a DB pension benefit that provides out of country medical and evac for trip durations of 60 days or less. No medical, no age restrictions.

Unlimited amount of 60 day trips during the year. Typically we do two 55-58 day trips per year and a few 7-21 day trips in between.

This is a benefit and it can change. At the start of each year I go into the benefits plan to ensure that the coverage still exists and that the parameters remain the same.

We do the same with various insurances provided by various premium credit cards. Last week I discovered that one of those cards dropped car rental insurance. That alters the value of the card to me.

 

[bmcgonig]

I’m at the buying stage here as well. Couple questions.

Being that my Medigap plan covers medical emergency up to 50000 is medical insurance necessary? Medical care internationally is much cheaper than US so my thinking is that should be enough?

Might it be enough just to get medevac insurance?

 

[Rianne]

I'm buying, today, AAA medical insurance for when we go to Sicily. $1m evacuation, hospital (long term), flight cancellation/interruption, lost luggage. $349 for 20 days. However I have a health condition that would require extended care if something happened.

 

[Drake3287]

I also just bought a plan through GeoBlue for our 18 day trip to Italy starting next week. It was $307. for a million dollar limit with no deductible for my wife and I.

These plans work in conjunction with our own medical plan from home. For $307. bucks I thought it was a good deal for a piece of mind knowing that we'd be covered in case anything was to happen to us.

For most people from the US, your medical insurance covers you out side of the country but you're required to pay up front first and then seek reimbursement from your provider once you get home. With GeoBlue it'll cover the up front costs to get out of a hospital if needed. I don't worry about inexpensive bills for broken arms or stitches, just the dreaded serious stuff that can cost many thousands of dollars.

We've been traveling to Europe for years without any added medical coverage. Seemed like I had rolled the dice too long.

 

[Rianne]

I'm buying, today, AAA medical insurance for when we go to Sicily. $1m evacuation, hospital (long term), flight cancellation/interruption, lost luggage. $349 for 20 days. However I have a health condition that would require extended care if something happened.

AAA uses Alliance. Many have said that travel insurance is terrible and family members used it and agreed, it's terrible. I bought

https://www.geobluetravelinsurance.com

 

[Lucie]

We always purchase Tavel insurance for international travel. We had to use the medical once in Cancun. We had to pay $2000 on a cc for them to release my husband from the ambulance. The hospital bill was again charged to a cc before discharge. We submitted to both insurances. BCBS was considered primary. Keep in mind that it will likely be considered out of network and typically has a large deductible. Thankfully the travel insurance reimbursed us for the deductible and remaining costs.

 

[DrRoy]

Try Allianz for travel insurance.

 

[brett]

We do not consider length of time as a determining factor on whether or not we should purchase out of country medical.

Our view is that we can have a medical emergency requiring hospitalization or evac on day 4 of a 5 day trip or day 4 of a 60 day trip.

 

[nwsteve]

Just FYI, GEO Blue does NOT offer their products in WA--they refer you to an Affiliate--whole different ball of wax. I didnt even see a multi trip option.

When shopping be sure to know if you are getting secondary or primary medical coverage.
Primary pays providers directly and no waiting until you complete getting paid by your primary.
For those with Medicare intl coverage, it means waiting until you can send payment proof from Medicare and Medigap before you will get refunded for your medical costs when traveling intl. From experience, it is a LONG process and go over 3 mon easily.

If you use a broker like insure my trip or squaremouth, comparisons are pretty easy. You can require primary medical in the filter sections. Never again will I endure the time sink and frustration of secondary claimimg process.