BootsnAll Travel Community

I've looked over the health insurance guide on this site, and read some reviews about the best providers. I like World Nomad a lot, and for 9 months of traveling, I'll be paying about $400-$500 for coverage. It's a great deal for the kind of insurance they provide, but for a college student on a tight budget, this is still a lot of money and at this point I need to save everything I possibly can. Do you think it's worth getting the travel health insurance?

I heard that most doctors visits are around $50 or less (I could be wrong), and I doubt I'll be getting sick that often besides the occasional cold or cough. I can't see needing to go to the doctor that often though. What do you think? Will it be cheaper to pay the doctor's fees as I go, or bite the bullet and get the health insurance? Right now I'm leaning heavily towards getting health insurance, unless someone can convince me otherwise.

I think the primary reason people get travel health insurance is to protect themselves in case something seriosuly goes wrong. For example, you fall and break your arm. Or you come down with some unusual tropical disease and need to be evacuated to a hospital that can provide the needed treatment. Those are things you don't want to be paying for out of pocket. Of course, everyone assumes that these sort of things won't happen to them...so it's ultimately a question of your risk tolerance.

I agree with EMH, totally. The purpose of travel health insurance not for the routine cough, cold, etc. It is for the car crash, the broken arm, etc. The bad stuff you hope never happens.

Ultimately, it is a personal matter and weighing risk vs. cost. I hate spending the bucks for the insurance, but I am always glad I do.

Best of luck and I hope you never get your moneys worth of your insurance!

Can you get a very high deductible for less? Since you probably won't need it and often medical care is free or extremely cheap ( and often better than the US) abroad, that might be a way to cover your butt for a major problem and cost less.

Can someone please recommend some good travel insurance? I heard good things about WorldNomad but then when I called I found out it was secondary insurance next to my primary. And my primary will just be short term medical since I am quitting my job for a few months. And short term medical with BCBS won't cover me internationally. I'm obviously most concern about getting sick and needing to visit a doctor and not wanting to deal with seeing certain doctors. Also, do most travel insurance companies make you may out of pocket and then you file all the claims? Or are there some that pay up front?
Thanks.

Just to clarify...

There are basically two types of travel health insurance. The first type (which World Nomads offers) not only covers emergency medical care, it also covers trip cancellation and theft plus a few other things. There's no underwriting for the policy so they don't cover pre-existing conditions. And there's no option to choose your deductible.

The second type (which places like IMG and HTH offer) is a more comprehensive health insurance (similar to what you might get through your employer) and is subject to underwriting. It doesn't cover some of the other things that a World Nomads policy would cover (theft, trip cancellation). With this type of policy, you can select your deductible though since the health benefits are more comprehensive, the premiums will likely still be more than a World Nomads policy, even with a really high deductible.

VictoriaLove:

I'm not sure I understand your situation. If World Nomads is secondary to your BCBS and BCBS won't pay because you're out of the country, wouldn't World Nomads step in at that point? It's probably worth a call to them to find out.

Ed

I'll probably end up getting the insurance. I was also thinking about it today, and realized that I'll just feel a lot less anxiety knowing that I'm covered. WT, I never really understood the concept of a deductible. I'm still in college, and my parents have been paying this for me. From what I read online, a deductible seems to be the amount you must pay out of pocket before the insurance kicks in?

Yep, that's it. But again, deductible's aren't an option with World Nomads.

zhang, you should get it. I hate insurance because it is a colossal scam...until you need it and then it is absolutely vital. If something bad happened to you and you had to be medevac'd, you're talking an easy $50,000 right there. Like you said, the peace of mind alone will make it worth it.

skobb - writing from the current U.S. State Department medevac capital of the world.