Travel Insurance Requirements
The last thing you may think about when planning a relaxing vacation is illness and natural disasters, but unfortunately events like these sometimes happen. To avoid adding insult to injury by losing money in addition to dealing with the emergency, travel insurance can help. Travel insurance provides coverage for flight delays, medical expenses and medical evacuation. Some policies will cover you if you cancel the trip for any reason at all.
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Cancel for Any Reason Insurance
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Most travel insurance providers allow trip cancellation due to a "covered reason" such as trip interruption, travel delay or missed connections. Special policies that allow you to cancel for any reason provide some coverage if you cancel for other reasons. Typically travel insurance will reimburse you from 75 percent to 90 percent of these trip costs.
To be eligible to receive reimbursement on this basis, travelers must meet plan requirements such as purchasing the plan within 15 days of the initial trip deposit, and canceling the trip at least two days prior to the scheduled departure time. This type of insurance may provide benefits for such situations as missed connections, emergency assistance and baggage delay.
Medical Travel Insurance Plans
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Medical travel insurance plans provide you with medical coverage during your trip. Travelers are advised to check their own health insurance policy to see what coverage they have already. Many people find that their own policies restrict coverage to a limited geographic area, and cover emergencies only outside of that area.
Plans differ in their requirements for coverage. Many medical insurance plans have a pre-existing condition period. In this case, you will not be covered for an illness or injury for which you are seeking treatment if you were advised to see a doctor for the condition, had symptoms or were taking medication for the condition within a defined length of time.
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Medical Evacuation Travel Insurance Plans
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Separate travel insurance plans for medical evacuation/repatriation can be purchased. These plans will evacuate ill or injured people to a nearby medical facility and back to their home. Requirements are generally that the injury or illness is sudden and unexpected, and that it occurs during your enrollment period.
Travel Delay Insurance
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Some companies offer travel insurance to cover you if your trip is delayed. To receive benefits, your trip must be delayed for a period of time such as 12 hours, and the insurer will pay a prescribed amount per day, such as $250. There may be a limit to the amount the insurance company will pay out until travel is possible.
Policies may cover you if you are involved in a car accident on the way to the airport, if the airline announces a delay, if your passport is lost or stolen, if the weather prevents flight departure or if there is a natural disaster.
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