It is beneficial to have a mediclaim for foreign travel before planning for a abroad trip, because sometimes weather condition doesn’t suits you or you may caught by some serious disease over there.
There are different kinds of medical insurance for foreign travel.
1. Individual Travel Insurance
2. Family Travel Insurance
3. Senior Citizen Travel insurance
4. Student Travel Medical Insurance
Now check out how to select the best plan.
Sum Assured
This will depend upon the health of you and your family and your budget. If you are in good health, 1lakh per person is good coverage. We always advise higher sum assurance (1lakh and Above) for USA as medical cost is very high.
Pre-existing conditions
If you are suffering from any pre-existing diseases like Diabetes, High BP, Heart disease etc, select the plan which provides pre-existing coverage. Most of the travel insurance plans exclude pre-existing conditions but some plans do provide limited coverage in case of life-threatening situations.
Exclusions
General Physical Checkup, pre-existing conditions, Vision (Eye Test, Eye Glasses, and Contact Lens), Pregnancy and Prenatal Care is not covered by any of the Plan. Besides these, there could be other exclusions which are mentioned in the policy wordings.
Medical Tests
Many Travel insurance plans are available with no medical tests. Plans with medical tests always offer better coverage and less claim disputes. If you are travelling for long duration, its always advisable to undergo medical tests. Most of Indians don’t go for regular medical checkups and this provide good opportunity for medical check up and assurance before the trip.
Trip Delay, Cancellation and Curtailment
Select the plans which covers Trip Delay, Cancellation and Curtailment. This can help for some financial loss which can happen in case of delay, Cancellation or Curtailment of trip for reasons beyond your control.
Avoid plans with Per Illness/Accident Restriction
Many plans for over 60 years old persons, have per illness/accident limit. Avoid the plans with these restrictions. Suppose you have purchased the plan with sum assured of 50K with 10K per illness restriction. In this case you will be able to claim only 10K per illness even though you will be under the impression you have insurance cover for 50K.
Home Insurance
If your parents are visiting for long time and there is no one back home to take care of home building and content. It’s better to buy plan that offers coverage for Burglary and protection of building.
Renewal
Most of Insurance companies will not renew the policy if there is any claim in the Policy period. It’s good idea to buy the policy with maximum expected trip duration and if you expect the stay to be extended buy the policy which is renewal able.
Premium
Plan Premium is based upon your destination, Coverage Amount, Age of insured and benefits it offers. Though all of us love to save money, but low insurance premium shouldn’t be your only factor in making decision. At the same time high insurance premium also doesn’t mean higher benefits. If you don’t have time to read the whole policy wording, spare some time in reading the exclusions and benefits which are most interest to you.
Claim
In order to make a claim, you need to contact the Insurer or Third Party Administrator (TPA) of the Insurance Company, which has tie-ups with network hospitals worldwide. TPA information is provided in the Insurance policy.
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