The Importance of Travel Insurance

Your trip can take months to save for and only seconds to ruin. Vacations can be quite the investment and if something were to go wrong you could lose all that you invested. Many travelers fail to realize the security that comes from purchasing travel insurance.

If anything were to go wrong, the insurance can protect your investment as well as provide you with coverage for medical expenses, trip cancellations/ interruptions, baggage damage, emergency medical treatment while traveling, medical evacuation, weather, delays, legal assistance, personal liabilities, rental car damage, etc. It is important to note that obtaining medical treatment and hospital care abroad can be expensive, and medical evacuation to the U.S. can cost more than $50,000. In addition, U.S. medical insurance is generally not accepted outside the United States, nor do the Social Security Medicare and Medicade programs provide coverage for hospital or medical costs outside the United States.

Such protection is offered and highly recommended by your travel agent. For more information on planning the vacation of a lifetime and protecting that investment, please visit !

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Agree with you there Mel - the benefit in travel insurance is more for health emergencies rather than replacement of material possessions. Reply to this

Since returning back to the UK after 2 years on the road. I have worked as an ambulance medic with a company who specialise in insurance company repatriation of those sick or injured while abroad. I meet people at UK airports in my ambulance and take them to various specialist hospitals or as part of the continuation of patient care we take them home to any where in the country, that is if the hospital has cleared them to travel in the first place and then only if they have been cleared by the travelling doctor who is always British and who stays in the same hotel as the patient before travelling. They then sign them off to me.

For as little as £18 to cover medical incidents, this small sum has saved the patient/traveller thousands of pounds and much heart ache. I have met 15 year old snow boarders who broke legs, arms, pelvis. One 19 year old girl told me she had a last minute feeling to get medical cover, first day out surfing she broke her back in 2 places, her hospital bill and transportation back to the UK ended up in a private plane came to around £195,000.

I have met people my age (40's) who developed heart problems and have suffered a full on heart attack or severe asthmatic problems, these people were normally fit and well. I have helped couples who lost early pregnancies while on a 2 week cruise, with serious complications and had to get flown out to the nearest A&E in a central American country.

One lady fell seriously ill while in Mexico, amazingly the local hospital identified a long term condition that had not been diagnosed correctly in the UK and in turn saved her life. This story was amazing as again the couple got medical insurance as the last minute, the bill they got for 4 weeks of hospital care, hotel for the husband, a mobile phone to keep in touch with the insurance company 24 hours/7 and transportation home was in the region of $388,000, their UK home was not worth this, they had no savings of this magnitude, they would have been bankrupted by this event had it not been for this insurance. They felt truly blessed all round.

I know of a young lad who was uninsured and died in a terrible accident while in Europe, this cost his family thousands in hospital fees, and then flying his body home was traumatic to say the least as there are rules the airlines adear to for this kind of situation.

The insurance company will honour medical emergencies, some cases have had to wait up to six days for the insurance co. to agree to cover the costs, but this is rare. The insurance company do do checks with your medical records back home, especially if you are of a certain age group, and the incident is in US territory and sounds as if it could be an existing condition, this is why you need to be honest on the forms as to any prior conditions you may have I believe there are also ways around cover for a pre existing condition.

During this time, especially central-south American regions the hospitals will try their best to get your credit card from you, they will make you feel guilty and bad, but don’t give in. I now understand that they cannot do this while the insurance company is doing these checks. But the pressure to do the best for yourself or your loved one in emergency situations is immense. Once the insurance company agree then its 1st class treatment all the way. The insurance company will usually agree there and then and assign an agent to you.

During very trying and sometimes heart breaking experiences in a non-English speaking country, I have heard first hand great stories about insurance companies honouring the claim and coming through for the client/patient 100%!e(MISSING)specially with translators.

So, on a medical point of view I stress for everyone to buy even the most basic medical insurance, but still read and understand all small print.

As Mell you have highlighted one of my personal stories above for personal effects insurance, that is something I would probably not buy again in the future, as you can always get back the stuff you lost, but you can not get back your health or life is something goes wrong.
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I am currently having an insurance problem at the moment. Maybe somebody can help. Information from foreigners who live in Germany would be particularly welcome.

Here is my problem:
Me and my boyfriend want to get married. It is impossibly complicated paperwise to get married in Germany. We are going to get married in Denmark. To do this, we need to have medical insurance in Germany in order to get a residence permit for Germany for me, in order to get married in Denmark.

We are both foreigners here, but my boyfriend has medical insurance to cover him and my daughter. I dont have any because I dont work here. In order for me to be covered by my boyfriends insurance we would need to be married. In order to get the necessary papers to get married I need to buy medical insurance that starts last January. There is one company that charges 200 per month, but we have been waiting for them to call us back for a few months now, so dont know if we can get that insurance. Maybe my being a foreigner makes it complicated. The company that insures my boyfriend is out of the question because they would charge 8000 Euros.

Anyway, does anyone have any solutions to this heap of BS. We have been trying to sort out this getting married thing for the last 3 years. This is just the latest paperwork complication that is standing in our way, but thankfully it is the last paperwork problem, unless Germany create more laws before we manage to get married. Reply to this

If that was your daughter which would you rather she did?

Somehow, I think it is more important for my daugher than it is for me. I would likely throw myself off a cliff if it would save her life. Exaggeration, but only a slight one! :D But, what I mean is, when it comes to my daughter the choices become more defined. There is no way I would take risks with her. She has medical insurance for Germany and also world wide.

I feel a bit silly buying the 18 pounds insurance for travel though, when I have no medical insurance at all here in Germany. But when this getting married thing is sorted out, I will have top worldwide medical insurance. My boyfriend is covered by one of the most reputable insurance companies in Germany.

But, would the most rudimentary medical insurance cover take somebody back to their own country? It seems like a more fancy insurance cover would be needed for that. Reply to this

I was never one for travel insurance before.......until my Nanjing misadventure. First day in Nanjing, and a misstep ruined our entire holiday. I tripped, the right side of my face hit the pavement so hard it broke my eyeglasses. Worse, a piece of the plastic lens and a tiny screw got lodged right below my right brow. I spent nearly 3 hours in an O.R. of a hospital where no one seems to speak a word of English.

I did not spend much, as the Nanjing hospital only charged me for the meds. (They're kind to tourists here) But can u imagine how much I would have paid --- i had no travel insurance then -- if that misadventure happened elsewhere, say in Europe or America? Reply to this

But can u imagine how much I would have paid --- i had no travel insurance then -- if that misadventure happened elsewhere, say in Europe or America?

That is the thing I am trying to figure out. What would it actually cost? Also, maybe it ends up costing more, when hospitals know it is the insurance who will be paying than it would if we payed ourselves. There might be not much difference between the result of the fancy treatment the insurance pays for and the less fancy but necessary type. Reply to this

Thanks Claire 😊
Maybe he happens to know about insurance for when actually living someplace as a foreigner. Thing is, even if I buy medical insurance for travel and it covers taking me back to Germany after an accident, then I may not be able to pay for the treatment I need once I get to Germany. As it stands, I might as well just stay put if something happens to me while travelling until I am well enough to travel.

This reminds me, I had better get onto that insurance company again. Dont know what is taking them so long to sort this out. Dont they want to sell their product or what? Apparently they are a reputable company. Reply to this

travelgaurd.com looks pretty good. I have never used it, but it might be exactly what I am looking for. I need medical insurance for expatriates in Germany and am having a hard time getting it. I think I will try Travelguard, since they have already been recommended by one person here on TravelBlog so far.

So, I need expatriates insurance to get my residence permit here in German, in order to get married. I presume I also need some type of insurance to include evacuation for the times I am travelling in other countries. I dont do risky sports so wont need that part. Does anyone know if there is some kind of expat in Germany who does some world travelling of 20 to 60 days per year combo package? If they can really send me this thing within 2 working days after I apply for it, I will be very happy, because it will beat any of the services I have tried so far. Reply to this