Comprehensive vs Medical: What Travel Insurance Plan is Best?
Do you need comprehensive or medical travel insurance? Compare travel insurance plans and find what’s right for you.
If you’re gearing up for some well-deserved travel, you might be shopping for trip insurance. Comparing insurance is definitely not the most exciting thing you’ll do to get ready for your trip, so here’s a handy guide to help you get through it quickly and easily.
Compare trip insurance…”what travel insurance plan is best?”
Should you buy travel medical insurance or a comprehensive plan? Turns out there are a lot of options. Some plans cover a bit of everything, while medical can cover more specific medical issues. A travel insurance comparison site can list the options to choose from, but in the end only you know what’s right for you.
Here are the pros and cons of each, so you can get the plan that’s right for you.
The Pros & Cons of Buying Comprehensive Trip Insurance
Like the name implies, comprehensive trip insurance covers a wide smattering of events. That includes medical and non-medical issues such as baggage loss and unforeseen medical expenses as well as trip cancellation and sometimes things like loss of your passport.
Pros.
•covers trip cancellation
•covers trip interruption
•covers medical expense
•can cover evacuation
•can include Cancel for Any Reason
•some packages can serve as your primary health coverage while traveling
Cons.
For travelers who only want medical coverage, comprehensive insurance will feel like overkill. This would include anyone traveling on a short, domestic flight with no baggage and during summer when flights are less likely to be delayed or canceled due to bad weather.
The Pros & Cons of Buying Medical Trip Insurance
If you want to forgo the comprehensive plan and just buy travel medical insurance, here’s the scoop. Before you do anything, find out whether you’re already covered with your existing medical insurer. Some plans do and others don’t of course, but Medicare never covers you overseas.
But even if you already have coverage through your existing plan, it might be a good idea to consider buying a travel medical policy for your trip. Supplemental insurance can pick up where your regular insurance leaves off.
Pros
•if you’re on Medicaid, it offers a way to get coverage while traveling
•many pre-existing conditions are covered
•for frequent travelers, multi trip policies can save you money
Cons
•travel medical insurance is more costly after you reach the age of 50
•if you’re over 70, it can be very expensive
•if you travel to an at-risk country for which the US State Department has issued a warning, you may not be covered unless you buy supplemental coverage
•may not cover you if you participate in an activity which your insurer feels is dangerous or unwise
•if you want to participate in extreme sports, you’ll have to purchase an adventure-sports upgrade
As you can see, comprehensive trip insurance functions as a wide blanket, covering much of what can go wrong on any given trip. Medical coverage, on the other hand, is more for travelers who don’t have any health coverage abroad but who don’t feel the need for other types of trip insurance.
