Why Get Travel Insurance?
Trips of a lifetime are preferred to run smoothly but in life people sometimes encounter predicaments that cannot be avoided. May it be a problem with lost baggage, a last minute illness, or a bankrupt cruise line, by obtaining travel insurance you will be protected. Policies that come with services for medical and dental emergencies as well as medical evacuation can provide those extra layers of security for overseas travelers.
Conducted by the US Travel Insurance Association was a study about how there are more American leisure travelers that buy travel insurance as they did before. Whatever their travel plans are, when they book cruises 70 percent of Americans also buy travel insurance for their trips.
Furthermore, one out of every six individuals who purchase travel insurance files an insurance claim at some point.
A lot of differences exist when it comes to travel insurance policies and so it is important that you check the offered coverage and the fine print before you buy. When it comes to package travel insurance policies, you will be provided coverage for lost or delayed baggage, medical or dental emergencies, trip cancellation, travel delays, or accidental death. On some occasions, medical evacuation coverage is obtained separately.
Considered unnecessary by most people is flight insurance even if this provides compensation if there is any death or injury that happens during a commercial flight. Here, the risk is low to begin with and if there is a case of injury people can rely on their medical or life insurance policies and if there is a case of death an accidental death policy can be used.
Adequate health care travel insurance can be very helpful when you travel and this is due to the fact that Medicare and the majority of private health insurance policies will not be able to cover you for any medical expenses that you incur while you are traveling outside of the United States. In addition, if you should become seriously ill, a medical evacuation can cost thousands of dollars.
In selecting a travel insurance policy, what you need to do is practice extreme caution. Through the Internet, your search for travel insurance will generate a number of comparison sites for you to use. For these websites, aside from dates you also need to enter trip costs, destinations, and age of travelers and this will help you get quotes and a list of the features and benefits that are being offered by the different policies. For these policies, higher quotes are given for older travelers.
It is possible for a person to have some difficulty in getting the desired coverage if there is a pre existing medical condition. After a request for quotes there were 31 package options ranging in price from $108 to $486 delivered by one of these comparison sites, 2.7 percent to 12.2 percent of the cost of the trip, considering the travel plans of a 55 year old traveler booking a cruise to Alaska from California valued at $4,000.
Travel insurance was put to good use by a couple who planned an Alaskan cruise. Two weeks before departure, the wife came down with a sudden and painful case of shingles. The couple was able to cancel their cruise reservation because they thought of purchasing the necessary insurance and they were also able to get back the money they had paid in advance toward their trip. What they had to pay for however was an inland flight.
After the illness subsided, the insurance allowed them to resume their travel plans. It's just one example of how travel insurance can help travelers hedge their bets against life's unpredictable events and make travel plans with greater confidence.
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