Travel Insurance

I have another insurance related update to write about today. Since I had positive comments about the last insurance post, I'm not even going to apologize about the possibility of boring you with this one. 

In the last insurance post I mentioned the need for travel insurance for the international portion of our trip given our propensity for adventurous activity (that some may classify as "dangerous"). There are many companies that sell travel insurance. Most include emergency medical expenses, medical evacuation, repatriation of remains, and accidental death and dismemberment and you can add riders to include different sports related injuries. Some companies include trip cancellation and lost baggage coverage. A few pay for stolen or broken items while traveling like cameras, laptops, etc. As you would expect, any extra benefits translate into extra cost.  

In researching a few options online, I quickly discovered that every insurance company has highly negative and highly positive reviews. I also noticed that many backpackers use and promote World Nomads travel insurance. After checking it out, I can understand why. The website is very user friendly. The plans include the standard emergency expenses as well as all the extras. Sports related injuries are included as standard. There are two tiers of insurances, depending mainly on what sports you are interested in. Of course, rock climbing falls under the more expensive tier. So, we were looking at about $600 for coverage for our three months abroad. Ouch. I decided to look into some less deluxe options. 

To find more affordable options, I eliminated plans that included trip cancellation or lost and broken travel items. We're not worried about trip cancellation, because we haven't sunk a lot of expense into our planning, and we'll just have to be responsible with our belongings. Still there were still a few companies to choose from that had similar quotes. 

In the end, I chose Medex. The insurance agent who had helped us with domestic health insurance had suggested this company, and there is power in a recommendation. It includes the normal emergency medical as well as lost baggage on aircraft. It does not include trip cancellation other loss of baggage or broken or stolen items, making the policy much more affordable. Affordability is further increased by allowing you to choose a maximum coverage limit for medical costs. You can choose limits from $50,000 to $250,000; the higher the limit, the higher the cost of the plan. We chose a middling amount and ended up with a cost of about $270 for three months. A price that seems much more reasonable for something that probably and hopefully we won't be using!