I know, I know – you do yoga, exercise, and drink kale smoothies everyday, right? You are the healthiest person in your circle of friends, bar none. I get it.
As healthy as we may be, sometimes fortune has a way of throwing us a curve ball when we’re on a trip. My friend, we’ll call him Daniel (to protect the innocent), was on a cruise with his wife in the Caribbean and started to feel a little off. After a couple of days he was doubled over in pain, so they evacuated him off the ship in a stretcher to a hospital in Barbados. There, they did abdominal surgery and rearranged his insides a little. Twenty some-odd days later, he was able to fly home. Suffice it to say that it was a **memorable** trip that without the surgery, would not have had the happy ending it did.
That’s where travel insurance comes in. It helps smooth some of those bumps on the road when the unexpected happens. It could be an unexpected illness, like my friend Daniel experienced or maybe something like an accident on the slopes while skiing or twisting something badly while hiking. You may have great insurance when you’re in your hometown, but those policies don’t always cover things they way you’d like when you’re out of network or out of town (especially when you’re out of the country).
The cost for travel policies are usually based on where you’re going and how long you’re going to be there. You’ll also find some variation on, “Good, Better, Best” for coverage levels, with more comprehensive coverage costing more than basic coverage. You’ll also see a few value-added bells and whistles like coverage for travel delay or lost luggage included. These are nice to have features, but not nearly as important as coverage for emergency care, accidents and sickness. Some policies even include medical evacuation to get you back home (or a major city closer to home) for treatment.
