Travel Insurance Will Cover Many Emergencies Abroad: Medical Coverage

A muddy stoop and a gaggle of chickens outside a makeshift hospital in Cancun was enough to convince Amanda Klimak of the value of travel insurance. It was the early 1990s, and Klimak, who had been dancing the night away, slipped and tore a ligament in her knee.

"They took me to this clinic," said Klimak, now vice president of Largay Travel in Waterbury. "There were chickens at the door, and the doctors were tracking in mud, and they wanted to drain my knee. I took one look and said, 'No thank you. Just give me crutches'."

Klimak, who didn't have the funds to book an immediate flight home, spent the next seven days on crutches, waiting for the weekly charter flight.

Travel insurance would have allowed her to fly home almost immediately at no additional cost.

The experience didn't quash her travel bug, said Klimak, who describes herself as and avid and frequent world traveler. But it did get her into the habit of buying travel insurance.

These days, most travel-insurance coverage is sold as a package, typically priced at about 4 percent to 8 percent the cost of a trip. Not only does it provide medical coverage, but it also covers trip cancellation, flight delays and lost baggage.

Oscar Ramos of Milford buys travel insurance when he ventures abroad.

"A lot of people use it for medical emergencies or legal assistance. For me it means fewer headaches," said Ramos, a correction officer and a frequent traveler.

"When you go international, there's a lot of problems with delays, so I want to make sure I'm covered. If they cancel a flight, I want to be sure that I'm the first one to get a seat, otherwise I'm on the waiting list. With travel insurance, you're basically guaranteed to get a seat faster than anyone else," said Ramos, 27, whose recent jaunts include trips to Paris, Ecuador and Mexico. "When I'm just traveling nationally, I don't buy it."

Trip Cancellation

For travelers who have booked expensive trips, travel insurance can eliminate worries and lost dollars associated with canceling. In most cases, cancellation fees are stiff and refunds nearly impossible to obtain without insuranc. "It's a fraction of the cost of the total trip. If something goes wrong, you are covered," said David Thorgalsen, owner of Davids Travel in West Hartford.

"In these economic times, it's something to consider. If you're terminated or laid off and you've been employed for a certain number of years prior, you'd be eligible for a full refund with trip-cancellation insurance."

Trip-cancellation insurance also can cover family emergencies.

"If your mother gets sick and you have to cancel your cruise to care for her, trip-cancellation insurance would cover that as well," Thorgalsen said.

"If it's just an airplane ticket, not too many people are interested in buying insurance to cover a cancellation," Thorgalsen said. Most airlines don't allow full refunds, but usually a ticket can be used for a future trip with the addition of a change fee.

Travel insurance also covers trip delays. When a Connecticut family was coming home from a cruise in March, they had to spend three days in Fort Lauderdale while an ice storm hovered over New England.

"The hotel cost them $200 a night," said Leona Archambault, travel consultant with Travel Leaders in Putnam. Fortunately, they had travel insurance, and "I was able to tell them they would be reimbursed."

"Airlines consider weather delays to be 'an act of God'," Archambault said. "And if you're stuck somewhere because of bad weather, you're on your own."

Medical Coverage

"People don't realize that their regular insurance may not cover them out of the country. That's true even on a cruise ship. Because it's not a traditional hospital facility, your insurance may or may not cover you," said Klimak.

Most traditional health-insurance policies limit medical coverage abroad to emergency-related expenses, have high deductibles and co-pays and don't cover the cost of medical evacuation, according to a study by the U.S. Travel Insurance Association, a nonprofit industry group.

Travelers may mistakenly believe they are covered for health care abroad, and potentially encounter a situation ... which could cost them thousands of dollars," said Ed Walker, the association's president. A medical evacuation by a specially equipped plane to an advanced medical facility "could run $50,000 or more," Walker said.

One of Archambault's clients ended up in the hospital in the Philippines.

"Her veins collapsed after being in the air so long. She was in the hospital for several weeks in Manila. Travel insurance took care of the bill for her. They actually flew her back with a nurse first-class to New York. Had she not had travel insurance, I don't know how she would have afforded it," she said.

Even when there is medical care available abroad, some travelers would rather not use it.

"I have been in countries where I've thought there is no way I want to be treated at the local hospital," said Klimak, who pays $250 a year for a MedjetAssist ( www.medjetassist.com) policy that pays for her evacuation to any hospital she chooses from anywhere in the world.

"You can be in Cambodia and if you want to be treated at Hartford Hospital, it will take you there," said Klimak.