Many people travel but not many are aware of the availability of travel insurance policies. Some may think that travel insurance policies are just another type of policies ingeniously created by insurance companies to make more money from travellers. However, some of these travellers may not have thought about the various things that can go wrong just as they are embarking on their dream holiday, business trip or when they are stranded on a foreign land.
Travel insurance usually provide 24 hours protection to the policyholder and one of the most common coverage is against personal accident. In the event of an Accidental Death or Permanent Disablement which occurs within 365 days from the date of accident, the insurance company usually pays the sum insured as agreed to the traveller. In many cases, reimbursement for medical expenses incurred due to injury or sickness (both out-patient and in-patient treatment) including emergency dental treatment is also given. Some policies also include follow-up treatment in the home country for up to 30 days subject to a pre-agreed maximum limit. Having a travel insurance thus protects the traveller from having to pay for medical / hospitalisation fees, which can be very expensive, when they are travelling. If the traveller thinks that he needs to get involved in an accident to end up in a hospital, he may be mistaken because even other ailments like diarrhoea and appendicitis can be a cause for admission.
Some travel insurance policies go further by providing for emergency medical evacuation expenses to send the insured person to the nearest facility that is able to provide proper care in the event an insured person is being in critical medical conditions. This would be useful especially when travelling to a country which has inferior medical care and facilities. These type of cover usually also takes care of the expenses incurred in returning the remains of the insured person who suffered loss of life back to the home country.
Other types of cover may include compensation for flight delays, missed flight connections, lost or damaged baggage as well as trip cancellation.
Travellers will see that it may very well make sense to pay a small premium for a peace of mind especially when the traveller invests a substantial sum towards the holiday or trip of their choice. For those travelling in or originating from Australia, covermore.com.au is a good place to start in finding the travel insurance policy which fits the traveller’s requirements.
