When it comes to protecting your health, you never want to be caught off guard. Not being prepared for medical emergencies while you’re traveling can have greater repercussions than when you’re at home.
How will you navigate a health care system you’re unfamiliar with, a task that gets even more stressful when you don’t feel well or speak the same language as your doctors? How will you pay for your treatment?
Domestic health insurance does not always cover treatment when you travel internationally. This is why you need travel medical insurance. In this guide, Seven Corners offers an overview on what travel medical insurance is and when your travel medical insurance starts so that even if you are caught off guard by an injury or illness, your health will be protected.
What is travel medical insurance?
A travel medical plan provides a wide variety of medical benefits and emergency services that are important if you become sick or hurt on a trip outside your home country. If you contract an illness such as COVID-19, malaria, or even the flu while traveling and require care from an international medical provider, your travel insurance may be able to cover treatment expenses.
Travel medical plans also cover emergency medical evacuations if appropriate medical care is not available in your location. Not only can insurance help cover the cost of the evacuation, but our travel assistance services will arrange the evacuation to a medical facility that can provide the necessary medical treatment for you.
How is travel medical insurance different from trip protection?
There’s more to travel insurance than just medical coverage. Trip protection offers both insurance and non-insurance services. Benefits can protect your lost or delayed baggage and your nonrefundable trip expenses if you must cancel or interrupt your trip. Additionally, travel assistance services are available 24/7 to help in instances such as replacing a lost passport, interpreter referrals, arranging emergency medical evacuations and more.
Because this coverage is different than travel medical insurance, when your coverage is effective is also different than with travel medical insurance. If you have questions about when coverage for trip protection begins, visit this guide for when to buy travel insurance.
When does travel medical insurance coverage start?
Coverage for travel medical insurance begins the moment you depart your home country, regardless of whether you purchase the plan one day or several months before departure.
It might be tempting to wait until the last minute to purchase your insurance, especially if you’re trying to decide if travel medical insurance is worth the cost, but buying sooner rather than later really is better. The plan cannot start until at least one day after you purchase it, and it’s best to give yourself time to review your plan document, ask questions, and make sure you’re choosing the best plan.
What does it all mean?
We know buying insurance can get confusing, especially when there are terms and definitions you don’t understand. Seven Corners can help take the confusion out of travel medical insurance. Find more travel insurance advice on our blog or contact one of our experts.
Don’t put off finding the right travel insurance for you and your next trip. Get a quote for Seven Corners Travel Medical Insurance now.
