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I don't normally bother with travel insurance as I usually fly to UK when I go overseas and as a UK citizen I can get healthcare any time. However, I'm going to New Zealand in a couple of weeks and I know that for non-residents any medical treatment there can be incredibly expensive. I'm in good health and fit so I'm not expecting any problems, this is more of a just-in-case scenario.
So my question is: Is travel insurance worth paying for and if so, are there any particular insurers you would recommend?
Might want to try Travel Insurance - InsureMyTrip.com
It will give you comparisons for many travel insurance companies with different plans and prices. We always use Travel Guard and have filed a claim in the past where they promptly paid 100%.
Do you have a credit card (or similar)? Many cards already include some form of insurance, so no other insurance purchase is necessary, as long as you pay for your trip with that card.
One thing I've noticed with all plans is that nobody seems to include vision-related emergencies. Eg; if I lost my contact lenses or broke my glasses I'd be completely lost as I can't see 3" past the end of my nose but no plan apparently covers the cost of replacements. And my VSP is no help either.
When we went to Egypt a couple years ago we did get travel insurance. I got it mainly for the emergency evacuation/health insurance, but AAA basically advertised it as trip cancellation insurance primarily (I think that is the feature a lot of people are interested in it for). I bought the cheapest one, that would reimburse $200 if the trip was canceled due to an emergency, which obviously was not enough to cover the cost of the tickets, but that was not the main reason I purchased the insurance, which was as I said for health/emergency evacuation, which was the same benefit amount across the board. (The cost of the insurance rose with the amount of ticket cancellation reimbursement--which is why I only got $200 of coverage--to pay the cheapest I could to get what I really wanted).
Anyway, I don't think this insurance cost more than $50 per person.
We were in Egypt for almost a month, and when you figure how much you pay per month for health insurance here at home, $50 per person for almost a month of emergency coverage is really very little. The cost of being medically evacuated ($50,000 plus) in case of an emergency alone is enough to justify the $50, IMO.
Regarding vision---I have no idea if that was covered, and I am in the same boat as you--I can't even get out of bed w/out my glasses. I brought an extra pair, plus a current prescription in case I needed a new pair. I'm not surprised most don't cover it.
When we went to Egypt a couple years ago we did get travel insurance. I got it mainly for the emergency evacuation/health insurance, but AAA basically advertised it as trip cancellation insurance primarily (I think that is the feature a lot of people are interested in it for). I bought the cheapest one, that would reimburse $200 if the trip was canceled due to an emergency, which obviously was not enough to cover the cost of the tickets, but that was not the main reason I purchased the insurance, which was as I said for health/emergency evacuation, which was the same benefit amount across the board. (The cost of the insurance rose with the amount of ticket cancellation reimbursement--which is why I only got $200 of coverage--to pay the cheapest I could to get what I really wanted).
Anyway, I don't think this insurance cost more than $50 per person.
We were in Egypt for almost a month, and when you figure how much you pay per month for health insurance here at home, $50 per person for almost a month of emergency coverage is really very little. The cost of being medically evacuated ($50,000 plus) in case of an emergency alone is enough to justify the $50, IMO.
Regarding vision---I have no idea if that was covered, and I am in the same boat as you--I can't even get out of bed w/out my glasses. I brought an extra pair, plus a current prescription in case I needed a new pair. I'm not surprised most don't cover it.
Considering how many people wear contacts and/or glasses I am a little surprised that it's not covered but not entirely. I will just take a spare set of contacts and hope that my conjunctivitis doesn't resurface
Everytime I go to the eye doctor I have them write out my prescriptions and I carry them with me overseas. However I always have a set of glasses and now use disposable contacts and carry plenty of those.
I'd always get travel insurance if going overseas. I always have it myself and the $100 is worth it for a month.
Reason being is I have known quite a few people that have broken a leg or worse and the travel insurance helped them out big time.
Everytime I go to the eye doctor I have them write out my prescriptions and I carry them with me overseas. However I always have a set of glasses and now use disposable contacts and carry plenty of those.
I'd always get travel insurance if going overseas. I always have it myself and the $100 is worth it for a month.
Reason being is I have known quite a few people that have broken a leg or worse and the travel insurance helped them out big time.
Knowing someone who needed it but didn't have it was one of the reasons I knew I wanted to get it. I think the medical evacuation from Europe to US was $60,000 or something like that. Plus it was a nightmare trying to set it up because who has $60,000 sitting in the bank that a family member can easily access on their behalf? Not me.
I'd never travel w/o travel insurance with medical cover. Sure, you can be healthy but you never know. You can get sick, injured, attacked, etc etc.
The type of account we have at our bank includes travel insurance. Before that we always purchased some.
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