Travel insurance insight - Brief Article
You’re traveling to the Far East for two weeks, spending a few thousand dollars. The trip should be splendid–unless your plans come to a screeching halt due to a sudden illness or some other emergency. If you were smart enough to purchase travel insurance, your plans might be ruined but at least you’d be able to avoid a financial disaster. Otherwise, call in the Coast Guard, because your wallet is going to start sinking fast.
Although travel insurance is not a necessity for most domestic trips, it’s not a bad idea for expensive and/ or long overseas jaunts. The coverage can protect you if you have to cancel your trip at the last moment, says Anne Leonard, staff writer for InsideFlyer, a publication for frequent fliers. Travel insurance can also help you contain some unexpected medical expenses and perhaps the costs associated with an emergency trip back home.
But when you need travel insurance, what type should you buy? “Before spending any extra money, check your current policies,” advises Leonard. Your health insurance plan may already pay for an emergency while you’re overseas, although it probably won’t cover your emergency transportation back home. Also, examine your home and life insurance policies. They may cover various travel misfortunes, such as illnesses and accidents. “And if you rent a car on your trip and use a credit card, you may be already covered by your credit card company,” notes Leonard. Find out how much coverage you receive and if there are any restrictions. But beware that in case of a car accident, you may be asked to pay for damages up-front and have the credit card company reimburse you.
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Finding the right travel insurance will take some research, says Leonard. Keep in mind that policies typically cover as much as $10,000 in medical expenses and $20,000 to $50,000 in evacuation costs. Preexisting conditions and risky activities (such as mountain climbing or bungee jumping) won’t be covered.
There are three types of travel policies: bundled, custom, and flexible. Health and evacuation policies are often sold in combination with trip cancellation, baggage loss, and accidental death insurance. Bundled packages like this typically cost from 6% to 8% of the price of the vacation. These packages include a maximum of $10,000 coverage for trip cancellation and up to $25,000 for emergency medical evacuation. They typically also include such things as baggage loss and flight insurance. Three insurers with comprehensive packages are Travelex (800-228-9792; www.travelexinsurance.com), whose insurance costs about $400 per $5,000 trip; CSA Travel Protection (800-348-9505; www.travelsecure.com), which costs about $140 for a $5,000 trip; and Travel Guard International (800-826-1300; www.travelguard.corn), whose policies run about $400 for a $5,000 trip.
But you may want to create your own customized package, especially if all you need is medical and evacuation coverage. In this case, buy a policy priced according to the length of your trip. You can purchase separate policies from Access America (800-284-8300; www.accessamerica.com), which offers up to $10,000 in medical expenses and $50,000 for evacuation. A nine- to 15-day trip would cost under $100. With Travelex, frequent travelers can pay an annual fee of $149 for the same amount of coverage. Again, examine the restrictions and coverage carefully.
Flexible travel insurance policies are also bundled, but tend to be cheaper than package deals. You bundle only the insurance you want. For example, if a trip requires you to leave a nonrefundable deposit, with flexible travel insurance you can cover only that amount rather than the cost of the whole trip. Check into Access America’s Basic Plan and Travelex’s Travel Assure policy if this is the way you want to go.
At-a-Glance
Do you need travel insurance?
* No, if your home owner’s, medical and life insurance policies offer coverage. But find out how much.
* No, if your credit card covers your rental car.
* Possibly, if you’re heading out for a long and/or expensive trip.
* Possibly, if you’re traveling overseas.
* Yes, if your overseas trip/tour/cruise deposit is nonrefundable.
Mom and dad; she’s counting on you: experts recommend that you carry ten times your annual income in life insurance. Insure.com can show you how to buy the lowest-priced insurance from the highest-rated companies - Brief Article
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$500,000 Term Life Sampler
Annual Premiums, Strating From:
AGE 10 YR 20 YR 30 YR
25  $ 156 $ 236 $ 316
30    156   236   386
35    156   246   416
40    201   321   526
45    286   481   826
50    381   666 1,096
55    546 1,071 2,171
60    791 1,731 5,916
65  1,251 3,316 7,756
Sample premiums shown above are not upecitic to any individual person,
state or insurer. Please Visit www.insure.com to view actual quotas and
learn about specific policy availabilities.
Annual or single travel insurance policy?
Choosing a travel insurance policy
An annual policy is a really convenient alternative to purchasing multiple single trip policies, but it’s likely to be more expensive if you only take one holiday a year.
Compare what the policy is offering against the trips you have planned to make sure that you are making the most of the cost saving.
If you’re going overseas more than twice a year, an annual policy that covers you for every trip makes financial sense.
This is especially true if you’re planning a ski trip, as annual policies usually include winter sports cover automatically.
If you’re a real ski bunny and planning to travel to the slopes more than once in a year, check your policy for the maximum number of days you’re covered for winter sports.
Travel Insurance - Yes or No?
Travel Insurance – Yes or No? Some people swear by it, other people swear about it. But there are many different types of travel insurance, some better than others.
In part one we review the different types and sellers of travel insurance policies; in part two we look at the different type of coverage and protection these policies offer you.
A Travel Agent Perspective
As a former seller of travel, I definitely loved travel insurance – not so much for the commission I earned from selling it, but rather because of the way that it could transform a desperate and sometimes tragic problem into a resolved situation.
I remember one time being telephoned, in the middle of the night, from a small out of the way island off the Australian coast. The caller was a client, in tears due to learning about the sudden death of his mother. I was able to say to him ‘Don’t worry about a thing, Paul; simply go to the airport tomorrow morning and there will be tickets waiting for you to get you and the rest of your family home as quickly as possible’. The cost of urgently returning home, and the cancellation fees for the rest of their vacation, were all absorbed by the travel insurance.
Another Travel Agent Perspective
As a travel wholesaler, we sold travel insurance through travel agents. One time I had a travel agent call me - also in tears. It turned out that she had neglected to offer travel insurance to a client, and now he was threatening to sue her and her agency if they didn’t refund him the costs that would otherwise been covered by travel insurance. He said ‘if you had offered it to me, I would have bought it, and because you didn’t offer it to me, you should be liable’.
For this reason, travel agents should be sure to always offer their clients the option of travel insurance.
Different Sources of Travel Insurance
There are many different sources for travel insurance policies, with different implications for their value and their coverage. Some sources are very much better value than other sources.
Wholesale or Retail Insurance
When you buy any sort of travel insurance, the premium you pay gets allocated several different ways. Some of it goes as commission to the person selling it to you. Some of it goes to cover the administration costs of creating your insurance policy and recording it. Some of it goes as profit. And some of it goes to actually cover the risks you’re insuring against.
You want as much of the money you pay as possible to go towards actual coverage, and as little as possible to be allocated towards the other things. Let’s guess how a typical $50 premium gets spent – something between $5 and $15 is selling commission, another maybe $5 goes towards promotion and other selling costs, then perhaps $20 goes towards administration, maybe $5 for profit, and that leaves something between $5 and $15 for actual risk coverage – not a large percentage of your $50 payment, is it!
However, if you bought the policy as a ‘wholesale’ policy, the $20 administration cost reduces down to maybe $1 or less, which means that the $5-15 of actual risk/benefit coverage increases up to $25-35 – more than double the coverage, compared to a ‘retail’ policy. If at all possible, you want to be buying a wholesale rather than retail cover.
What is the difference? A retail policy is where you fill out a special insurance application form, and send off a payment to the insurance company, and get a certificate of insurance back from them.
A wholesale policy (which also is sold through travel agents) is where a tour operator or wholesaler groups together many insurance sales. You still get the chance of buying insurance along with the rest of your travel arrangements, you pay the premium along with the rest of your travel costs to them, and simply get a pre-printed generic policy document and perhaps a voucher from the tour operator.
This way the insurance company has almost no administrative overhead – it simply gets a statement once a month from the wholesaler listing the people that they have sold insurance to and sending a check for the net premiums; all the insurance company has to do is bank the check (well, at least until you make a claim!).
‘Real insurance’ or Supplier’s Self-insurance?
If you are buying insurance that ultimately comes from a travel insurance underwriter, that is a ‘real’ insurance policy. But some tour operators and cruise lines will offer their own ‘house’ insurance policies. Often, all these policies protect you from is from that company’s own cancellation fees if you cancel your travels. This type of insurance can be very limited in its coverage, and while it might be less expensive than a comprehensive policy, it is rarely a good value.
The most extreme form of this in-house insurance is seen when rental car companies try and sell you their insurance coverages at rates typically ten times or more higher than you would pay through a commercial insurance company.
Annual or Single Trip Policies
Most travel insurance is offered as a single trip policy that covers you for your one particular upcoming trip. However it is possible to buy annual travel insurance that provides cover to you – potentially for as much travel as you might do during the entire year.
This is another form of ‘buying in bulk’ and the value tends to be very much greater in an annual policy than in a single trip policy, although the biggest factor here is how much travel you’re likely to do in a year. If you’re only going to travel once or twice, single policies are better, but if you have a lot of travel lined up in the next twelve months, check out an annual policy as a possible alternative.
Primary or Secondary Cover
This is an important point of distinction. Primary cover means that the company offering it will ‘pay first’; secondary cover means that they will pay second (or last), only after you’ve claimed as much money as possible from any other insurance you already have.
The important difference is most clearly illustrated with car insurance. If you have a $5000 claim, you don’t want to have to use your regular, at-home, auto insurance because they might then increase their rates and you lose your ‘good driver’ history with them. If the travel insurance policy has primary cover auto insurance, then you don’t need to do anything to mess up your regular auto insurance at all; but if it is secondary cover, the travel policy won’t do anything until after you’ve gone to your regular insurer and got as much as you can from them.
Needless to say, primary cover is better than secondary cover!
On a similar concept, some insurance companies will pay claims direct to whoever it is that seeks payment, others require you to pay yourself and then seek reimbursement. This is not necessarily always up to the insurance company – sometimes people will want to get money direct from you rather than trust on a faceless insurance company in another state or country to pay them, but where it is an option, you’d obviously prefer the insurance company to directly pay rather than to have to suffer the cash-flow consequences of making large payments yourself with reimbursement to follow who knows exactly when.
Travel insurance uk
Travel Insurance can also be beneficial in many cases like: Emergency Dental Treatment, Medical Evacuation/Additional Expenses, Standard Luggage and Personal Effects.
A travel insurance uk company basically provides services for travel insurance, there are several things that need to covered while taking travel insurance package from a creation travel insurance company, several times the travel insurance company gives lucrative offers and it looks cheap to buy that policy, but it does not cover several aspects, which might end up in loss, so before buying a travel insurance policy one must take care of the following points , that go with the travel insurance plans that provide coverage for vacation and trip cancellation, travel interruptions and delays, emergency medical and health expenses, lost baggage and more . Always go with the travel insurance plan that is flexible to choose the coverage that it meets the travel needs. From additional limits for medical or baggage, to special coverage for adventure travel While purchasing a travel insurance policy one must assure that the policy includes the following coverages: Trip Interruption, Trip Cancellation, Supplier Default (also known as “Financial Default”), a Trip Delay Benefit, and at least $25,000 worth of Air Evacuation in the event of a medical emergency. Also one must be sure that the policy is real insurance. One must not get fooled by buying “travel protection” offered by non-insurance companies. These other companies are often fly-by-night outfits who are not governed by the same rules and bonding/reserve requirements that insurers are. Never buy travel protection or insurance issued by a travel agency, airline, or cruise line. There is bound to be some contention from fellow travels.
One must read the entire policy before buying. Usually the policy and the exclusions can be found online. Always look for a document titled “Evidence of Coverage”. Make sure it covers you for any scenario that on would like to get covered. This is important because some policies do not cover potentially dangerous activities like scuba diving, bungee jumping, sky diving, and hang gliding. While reading the policy, don’t forget to review the definitions section which dictates how the insurance company defines all of the terms (like family member, medical necessity, and covered trip) and the State Exceptions section which provides any state mandated exceptions and add-ons which may affect travel insurance uk policy. Always look for carrier exclusions to make sure that cruise, air, or travel operator that a person would be considering is not on their list of excluded companies. Excluded companies are not covered by insurance if they go under.
Insurance is usually based upon the total cost of the trip (on a per person basis). Be sure to include the cost of the airfare or other
public transportation. Some companies would cover minor children for free. Very important point in the event that there is a requirement to make a claim, one must be sure to collect every receipt and keep them in one place, when required the documents can be easily found. Be sure to keep the receipt from travel agent with cost of trip, all unused airline tickets and transportation receipts, medical bills, copies of theft or other official reports, and any other pertinent receipts relating to the specific claim.
Some travel insurance companies provide cheap annual travel insurance which is an alternative choice for those budget- conscious travelers who are making more than one trip a year. The main feature of the annual travel insurance against regular travel insurance is that it saves money. For a once annual payment, one can become covered whenever there is need to travel during the year. The terms and conditions vary between companies, but annual insurance for unlimited travel is also available. Cheap annual travel insurance provides substantial cost savings than any regular type of travel insurance. There are some tips for choosing the best cheap annual travel insurance: Always sign up with a reputable insurance company that has worldwide offices which can easily be contacted during emergency needs. The insurance company should have a 24/7 customer assistance which is an essential for international travelers. Always make sure that the offices number of the travel insurance company ay is available while traveling abroad.
Make sure the travel policy is valid for the whole journey and includes comprehensive medical and repatriation cover. Always take a photocopy of travel insurance policy, along with a note of any 24-hour emergency numbers. Also, a claim could be turned down if one does not look after his belongings properly. For example, if someone the things get stolen off the beach while taking a dip in the sea, the insurance company might decide that the person has not taken “reasonable care” and refuse to pay up. Insurance companies are also growing increasingly concerned about fraud, especially with travel insurance. If someone claims for anything that has been stolen they’ll probably want evidence that actually that person owned the item in the first place. Keep photos at home of personal belongings that one would like to take during travel. Some insurers even ask for receipt
How to get the right travel insurance
Annual deals and joint policies
Annual travel insurance policies cover you for all the trips you take in a 12-month period and can work out cheaper than buying a separate policy for each holiday.
Most insurers offer annual policies. Some just cover Europe, while others are designed for worldwide travel. Medical and repatriation costs generally cost more in the US, so some insurers exclude the US or offer it as an add-on. Some insurers have a maximum trip length per trip.
Insure and Go’s annual policies include winter-sports cover and offers maximum trip durations of between 45 and 90 days depending on the policy level you choose. Its Silver Europe policy for an individual costs £39 and £69 for a family. Silver Worldwide is £55 for an individual and £85 for family cover.
Meanwhile, the Post Office has recently cut its prices and now offers worldwide cover, excluding the US, for £75 for an individual and £110 for a family or couple.
Some insurers also now offer joint policies to all couples, irrespective of marital status or sexual orientation. Preferential, for example, simply demands that both individuals are living at the same address. An annual policy for a couple is £54.96 for travel within Europe and £77.35 for worldwide travel.
Travel Insurance
Annual Policy Most insurance companies offer traveller insurance on annual basis as well as per trip basis. Annual policies cover unlimited trips made by you during the entire year provided that each trip does not exceed a certain number of days, usually 90 days. No declaration is required. For frequent flyers, this type of travel insurance would be most ideal in terms of cost and convenience. Family Travel Insurance Family packages are also designed to cater for immediate families travelling together. Definition of immediate families would include yourself, your spouse and your children. Family travel insurance are usually priced at a lower premium than if individual insurance policies were to be taken up for the whole family. Special Features ALERT! Go for travel insurance policies come with higher deductible as this can translate into lower premium. The worst case scenario is you may end up having to bear the first 30 - 40 Euros ( approx $40 or $50 ) of every claim that you make. Deductible: (Also known as Excess). This is the amount that the insured must pay before the travel insurance starts paying for your claim. This may be an annual amount, an amount for the duration of the policy, or an amount for each incident. Choose the latter. For those of you who intend to engage in water or winter sports during your holiday, it would be wise to take up your insurers who offer free coverage for such activities. Some travel insurance companies may charge an additional premiums (fees) for this extension, so it is better to check this point before you effect your cover.
Not surprisingly, bungee jumping is excluded from most policies. Watch out for age limits imposed by some travel insurance companies, meaning that persons exceeding a certain age are excluded from their coverage. But if you belong to this elderly group, fret not. There are travel insurance companies that do not impose any age limit and offer the same coverage at no additional premium loading.
Annual Travel Insurance
Understanding the concept of annual travel insurance.
If you usually go on a holiday more than once per year, what will you prefer Arranging for an insurance cover each time you travel or carrying out this annual travel insurance process just once per year and then enjoy the convenience of going on holidays as many times as possible without worrying about travel insurance details
If the second option appears much more attractive, logical and convenient to you, read on.
The concept of annual travel insurance is very popular in Europe, especially UK, and also in US and Canada. Most people view it as a time-and-cost saving option and it certainly delivers on both these counts.
A research by Alliance and Leicester carried out in 2004 had shown that UK holiday makers spend about ₤1.3 billion annually more than they need to, on travel insurance. It is widely concurred that this expenditure can be brought down by looking at the option of taking a one-tine annual travel insurance cover.
For people who usually take more than one holiday per year, getting annual travel insurance is a great option. If you plan to spend a two week holiday in Europe during spring and take another holiday sometime later in the year, getting annual travel insurance can save you money. Annual travel insurance policies of most of the insurance companies will cover you for one year with an unlimited number of trips allowed during that year. So you can proceed on as many holidays as you want with a comforting assurance in your heart that for the next twelve months, you always have a travel insurance cover with you.
The amount-range of cover offered by various insurers for their annual travel insurance products vary widely but you can easily get even high levels of cover such as a ₤5 million pound medical expenses cover, ₤2 million personal liability cover and so on. You can also get high-levels of cancellation cover, say a ₤3000 cancellation cover. Of course, all these figures will vary from one insurance company to another as well as for different annual travel insurance products offered by the same insurer.
Adjusting the policy to for a better fit.
You can also make adjustments in your annual travel insurance policy in a number of ways to suit your requirements. You can choose a policy best suited to your needs based on the following parameters:
Number of days allowed per stay: While your annual travel insurance policy will run throughout the year and during this twelve month time period, you can travel as many times as you feel like, the particular policy that you have chosen may put a limit to the maximum number of days allowed per trip so as to keep the insurance policy valid. Again, this limit will be different for different policies, there are policies allowing 21, 31, 45 or 50 days individual trip length. As the policy cover for the next twelve months will start from the start day you choose, be sure to choose this start date carefully. Cancellation cover will also start with the start of your policy, so in case you have already booked any trip, start your insurance policy immediately.
Raising your insurance cover further: Most insurers will advise you to upgrade to their superior annual travel insurance policy to not only get a host of other exciting benefits but also, complete peace of mind. Raising annual insurance cover to a superior level will no doubt cost you, but will also provide increased cover levels and reduced excess payments in case you need to make a claim. It will the Cover levels for hijack and mugging, legal advice, hospital benefits, travel delay, all are increased when you upgrade to a superior policy level.
The need of covering your baggage: Many home insurance policies automatically cover your personal belongings, your bag and baggage while you are traveling. So, in case you dont have a home insurance policy or your home insurance policy doesnt cover your belongings while you are traveling or if you are not quite sure what all things your home insurance policy covers, its always better to go for an annual travel insurance policy which includes baggage cover. With a baggage cover, you and your party is protected against baggage loss, delayed baggage, loss of passport documents, loss of cash or personal belongings. Since you are likely to opt for annual travel insurance cover only when you expect to make frequent trips, its all the more logical to include baggage cover in your policy.
Travel Insurance
Travel insurance policies provide at least five types of coverage, intended for different types of travellers and trips:
1. Comprehensive travel medical insurance is for people who don’t have any other medical insurance, even at home. Since most people who can afford it have health care coverage in their home country, often through their employer, comprehensive travel medical insurance is mainly of interest to long-term travelers who’ve left their jobs and lost their insurance coverage at home, or to those living and working outside their country of citizenship or permanent residence.
2. Emergency travel medical insurance is for people who have medical coverage at home, but whose health plan at home doesn’t cover them while they are travelling. Emergency travel medical insurance only covers emergency services abroad; once you get home, you’re on your own (or presumably, back under your regular home coverage) for any necessary follow-up treatment or continuing care. Most health insurance plans and health maintenance organizations in the USA include their own provisions for emergency care while abroad, at least for trips of less than 30 days. Check with your current insurer or HMO before you waste money on an emergency travel medical plan that duplicates your existing coverage.
3. Medical evacuation (medevac) insurance covers the cost of an air ambulance, attending physician and nurse, etc. if you are so badly injured, or become so ill, that you can’t come home (or get to a suitable medical facility) on a scheduled commercial passenger flight. Medical evacuations can cost tens of thousands of dollars, but are rarely necessary. Even very badly injured travellers usually can come home on regular flights after no more than a couple of weeks of emergency treatment and stabilization abroad. Some of the activities most likely to lead to a need for medical evacuation, such as scuba diving and extreme sports, are often excluded from medevac coverage. Read the fine print.
4. Trip cancellation and interruption insurance covers the cancellation or refund penalties and the cost of getting home if you have to cancel your trip, or cut it short, for specified reasons. The covered reasons vary (read the fine print), but typically include injury or illness to you, a travelling companion, or a member of your immediate family. War and terrorism may or may not be included, or may be covered only at additional charge.
5. Supplier default insurance covers any money you lose because of the bankruptcy of an airline, cruise line, tour operator, or other provider of travel services. Supplier default coverage has been drastically cut back since 11 September 2001. Some travel insurance companies no longer offer it at all, while others pick and choose which travel suppliers they will insure. Read the fine print.
Source of travel insurance
Where do you find this sort of insurance?
Some travel agencies and travel suppliers offer travel insurance as an option along with travels services you buy from them. For example, Hotwire.com — as a result of a suggestion I made to their president — began offering trip cancellation and interruption and supplier default insurance for four percent of the cost of tickets purchased from Hotwire, with a US$12 per ticket minimum. Airtreks.com, with whom I am affiliated, offers links to a selection of travel insurance policies chosen to suit the needs of long-term, independent international travelers.
Some regular insurance agents handle travel insurance, especially long-term comprehensive travel medical insurance. If you’re travelling for six months or more, or if you plan to travel regularly throughout the year, it may be cheaper to include travel coverage with your regular health coverage. Check with your regular insurance agent to see what they can offer.
You can also get travel insurance from specialists in the field. These include travel insurance companies, direct providers of medevac and travel emergency services, and independent travel insurance brokers and agencies that can help you compare the offerings of different insurers. Following are some of those I know of, with the types of coverage or services they offer.
Travel Insurance
Travel insurance policies provide at least five types of coverage, intended for different types of travellers and trips:
1. Comprehensive travel medical insurance is for people who don’t have any other medical insurance, even at home. Since most people who can afford it have health care coverage in their home country, often through their employer, comprehensive travel medical insurance is mainly of interest to long-term travelers who’ve left their jobs and lost their insurance coverage at home, or to those living and working outside their country of citizenship or permanent residence.
2. Emergency travel medical insurance is for people who have medical coverage at home, but whose health plan at home doesn’t cover them while they are travelling. Emergency travel medical insurance only covers emergency services abroad; once you get home, you’re on your own (or presumably, back under your regular home coverage) for any necessary follow-up treatment or continuing care. Most health insurance plans and health maintenance organizations in the USA include their own provisions for emergency care while abroad, at least for trips of less than 30 days. Check with your current insurer or HMO before you waste money on an emergency travel medical plan that duplicates your existing coverage.
3. Medical evacuation (medevac) insurance covers the cost of an air ambulance, attending physician and nurse, etc. if you are so badly injured, or become so ill, that you can’t come home (or get to a suitable medical facility) on a scheduled commercial passenger flight. Medical evacuations can cost tens of thousands of dollars, but are rarely necessary. Even very badly injured travellers usually can come home on regular flights after no more than a couple of weeks of emergency treatment and stabilization abroad. Some of the activities most likely to lead to a need for medical evacuation, such as scuba diving and extreme sports, are often excluded from medevac coverage. Read the fine print.
4. Trip cancellation and interruption insurance covers the cancellation or refund penalties and the cost of getting home if you have to cancel your trip, or cut it short, for specified reasons. The covered reasons vary (read the fine print), but typically include injury or illness to you, a travelling companion, or a member of your immediate family. War and terrorism may or may not be included, or may be covered only at additional charge.
5. Supplier default insurance covers any money you lose because of the bankruptcy of an airline, cruise line, tour operator, or other provider of travel services. Supplier default coverage has been drastically cut back since 11 September 2001. Some travel insurance companies no longer offer it at all, while others pick and choose which travel suppliers they will insure. Read the fine print.
Source of travel insurance
Where do you find this sort of insurance?
Some travel agencies and travel suppliers offer travel insurance as an option along with travels services you buy from them. For example, Hotwire.com — as a result of a suggestion I made to their president — began offering trip cancellation and interruption and supplier default insurance for four percent of the cost of tickets purchased from Hotwire, with a US$12 per ticket minimum. Airtreks.com, with whom I am affiliated, offers links to a selection of travel insurance policies chosen to suit the needs of long-term, independent international travelers.
Some regular insurance agents handle travel insurance, especially long-term comprehensive travel medical insurance. If you’re travelling for six months or more, or if you plan to travel regularly throughout the year, it may be cheaper to include travel coverage with your regular health coverage. Check with your regular insurance agent to see what they can offer.
You can also get travel insurance from specialists in the field. These include travel insurance companies, direct providers of medevac and travel emergency services, and independent travel insurance brokers and agencies that can help you compare the offerings of different insurers. Following are some of those I know of, with the types of coverage or services they offer.