Overview of Travel Health Insurance Options

Travel health insurance policies offer such a broad range of coverage options, it would be impossible to outline every possible benefit in one short article. But there are some broad choices that travelers should consider before even thinking about the smaller details of coverage. Here is an overview of some of those options:

Short- or long-term coverage: Travel health insurance can offer protection for a short, 5-day trip, or it can offer you coverage for trips taken over several years. If you are planning on taking an extremely long vacation or you think you may take several short vacations over the course of a year or more, then a long-term option might be a good choice for you, On the other hand, if you plan on just taking one short trip of a lifetime, the short-term options can fit your needs perfectly. Premiums will also vary depending on which option you choose, so be sure to consider that as well.

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Number of trips annually: Rather than covering an indefinite number of trips over a pre-determined time period, some travel health insurance policies can provide coverage for a fixed number of trips over a certain term. If you plan a number of mission trips over one time period or have a business need to travel and can coordinate all your meetings into a predetermined number of trips, this might be a great option to check out.

Global or location specific: You can buy a policy that offers global coverage for travel or one which is location or region specific. You can even buy warzone insurance that protects you in the event you travel to a location with some political unrest or that is currently defined as a warzone.

Accidental death and dismemberment: Travel health insurance policies cover medical treatments for accidents and injuries, of course, but they can also provide financial benefits when you suffer an accidental death or dismemberment while traveling.

Specialized emergency services: The nature of any health insurance policy is to provide emergency medical services, but travel health insurance can also be structured to provide benefits for other emergency situations like medical evacuation, emergency reunion, and return of mortal remains. You can also include trip interruption, political evacuation and lost luggage benefits.

In addition to the very flexible time frames and benefits listed above, travel health policies can be designed with limits and deductibles that ensure you can afford the premiums and still get the substantial financial protections that an insurance policy should give.

Overview of Travel Health Insurance Options

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International Travel and Health Insurance For Short Term Missions Trips

Community building, outreach, adventure, missions and volunteer work are a few of the buzzwords that get tossed around when discussing short term out-of-country trips Churches and Christian organizations promote during school breaks and summer vacations.

It is easy to get caught up in the fundraising, the training, and the excitement without taking your health into consideration. Don't fool yourself into thinking that because of your short term stay, or the nature of your work, you won't be confronted with hazards to your health during your overseas travel.

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What can go wrong on an international short term trip?

1. An elderly man named Don Jenkins joined United Methodist Church in their volunteer missions trip to the Dominican Republic. This trip included construction work, and as a result of a nasty fall, he incurred significant head injuries which resulted in ,000 in medical bills.

2. Lest you think life-threatening situations are restricted to the elderly, college freshman Shane Luiz drowned the day before returning from his short term mission trip. His team had come to the Dominican Republic to teach a Vacation Bible School for children.

3. A young college student was bitten by a poisonous snake on a small Indonesian island. She was there on a short term trip to help a missionary family. Sadly, she died in great pain from the snake bite. Her family incurred a huge expense to have her remains repatriated back to the United States.

Why is it critical to have short term international health insurance?

Whether you are a volunteer planning on spending your summer in Guatemala, or a team leader intending to take a missions team to East Asia, take into serious consideration the benefits of short-term international health insurance.

First of all, most national insurance will not cover costs incurred out the United States, or a medical evacuation to fly the individual back to the states for intensive medical treatment. In the case of Don Jenkins, his family had to mortgage their house in order to pay for the ,000 medical evacuation.

Secondly, there are a wide range of plans to choose from. If you are an individual in need of short-term international insurance, there is a plan for you. If you would like to have your entire team covered, there are plans specifically for small groups (as small as two people!). There are separate plans for outreaches, Church trips and NGO's; so depending on your situation you can pick the appropriate plan.

Third, having your entire team covered protects the credibility and trustworthiness of your organization.

But won't this cost a lot?

If you include the cost of insurance in the figure denoting the amount of support that must be raised by each individual, your team will be more willing to comply, and will not view insurance as an extra expense. If you can register as a group for a group rate this may lower the rates for everyone.

Buying insurance before participating in an overseas volunteer and mission effort is a good way to take care of yourself and your family, while simultaneously reaching out to others.

International Travel and Health Insurance For Short Term Missions Trips

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