Unfortunately, buying an insurance policy when applying for a visa or purchasing a tour package is still perceived as a mere formality. However, this issue deserves a more thorough approach, since it concerns your health. Today, virtually all major insurers are engaged in this type of insurance; all that remains is to choose the option that suits you best.
Insured event
The policy comes into effect from the moment you cross the border, that is, still at the airport after going through customs. A standard insurance policy covers unforeseen medical expenses related to sudden illness or accident. Depending on the severity of the illness or injury, the insured person will be provided with an ambulance call, hospitalization, surgical intervention, and payment for medications prescribed by the attending physician.
Special programs have been developed for athletes. For example, for skiers, the program includes, in particular, mountain search and transportation of the victim from the accident site to the hospital, medical and dental care, medical transport expenses, and visits to the insured by a close relative for care when hospitalization lasts more than 15 days. If the client is unable to return home on their own, the insurer pays for the necessary accompaniment – a doctor or a nurse. And upon returning to their homeland, treatment or rehabilitation from other injuries will be carried out under the supervision of domestic specialists.
In the event of the most unfortunate outcome, the insurance company organizes and pays for the transportation of the body for burial in the homeland.
While enjoying yourself at ski resorts, you should not forget that injuries sustained while under the influence of alcohol or drugs are not covered by the insurer. In addition, if, when concluding an insurance contract, you provided incorrect information (for example, did not indicate that you plan to engage in risky sports), then upon the occurrence of an insured event, the insurer may terminate the contract with you on the basis of false information. In other words, by deceiving the insurance company, you are first of all deceiving yourself.
Rules and exceptions
The cost of insurance directly depends on the duration of your trip. You may stay abroad for a strictly defined number of days, and the policy will indicate the dates of arrival and departure. Or you can insure yourself, say, for 60 days and make several trips during the year, but the total number of days spent abroad must not exceed the specified period.
The fewer days you spend abroad, the more expensive the insurance will be, which averages from $0.3 to $4.29 per day, depending on the sum insured, trip duration, and country of stay. Insurance will be more expensive for people over 70, as the risk of illness at that age is significantly higher. And for lovers of mountaineering, skiing, rock climbing, and avid snowboarders, the price of the policy will increase by an average of 1.5-2 times.
Most insurance companies offer discounts on insurance policies. For example, when traveling in a group of 10 or more people, the discount will be from 5 to 15%, and insurance for children under 12 will be 10% cheaper. When purchasing a family policy, children under two years old are insured free of charge, provided that one of the parents is insured. In this case, the liability limit is distributed evenly among all insured persons.
The sum insured is chosen at your own discretion, based on where you are going and what you plan to do – wandering around the city seeing the sights or skiing down steep slopes. The sum insured can be denominated in dollars or euros, depending on the client's preference of the insurance company. However, for most European countries, insurance is denominated only in euros.
Insurance companies typically offer coverage of insured events from $15 thousand to $75 thousand. Today, all European Union member states do not grant visas without a policy with coverage of at least €30 thousand. However, for some European countries, this amount is exactly the minimum, which will be insufficient if long-term hospitalization, transportation, or complex procedures are required.
In some countries, there are no established amounts of coverage for insurance policies, but the costs of treatment and possible transportation do not become smaller because of this. If, for a trip to a neighboring country, coverage of, say, $7 thousand is quite sufficient, then for traveling to exotic countries or during active tourism, it is better to purchase a policy for sums insured from $50 thousand.
It would not be superfluous to inquire whether the insurance company has a deductible – the portion of expenses not paid by the insurance company. For example, you feel unwell and call a doctor, who writes a prescription along with a bill for $100. After submitting this bill to the insurer, you may find out that expenses up to $200 are borne by you personally.
When choosing an insurance program, it is worth paying attention to whether there is a breakdown of the total sum insured within it. For example, under some programs, the entire range of measures to search for and provide assistance to the insured person is undertaken within the sum insured, while under another program, each service has its own limit. For example, the program states that the limit for dental care is $200. If the bill is issued for $500, then $300 of it will have to be paid out of the policyholder's own pocket, despite the fact that the total sum insured may be tens of thousands of dollars.
The same applies to mountain search. If the insurance company specifies a limit of $2 thousand in advance, and the bill issued based on the search results is $5 thousand, then here too $3 thousand falls on the shoulders of the policyholder. By limiting itself to such conditions, the insurance company thereby minimizes its costs, but also puts its client in a very difficult position.
After you decide how long you are going abroad, choose the insurance sum and program option. The insurer will name the cost of insurance according to the company's tariffs.
Abroad they will help us
“When an insured event occurs, before taking any action, the insured person or any person acting in his or her interests must call one of the phones of the 24-hour service center,” says Mikhail Chelpanov, head of personal insurance department at one of the companies. There should be no problems communicating with a service employee, since its workers speak Russian or have an interpreter on staff.
At the service center, you will be informed about the nearest medical facility where you can be admitted for treatment, or if necessary, the service company itself will arrange delivery of the victim to the clinic. You only need to provide your details, insurance policy number, and also indicate your location and phone number at which you can be contacted.
To pay for the mandatory set of medical services, you do not need to have cash or bank accounts with you, since all expenses are borne by the insurance company. If you have to buy prescription drugs, be sure to keep the receipt, by which the insurer will return the money.
To avoid unforeseen situations, you need to carefully study the insurance policy even before crossing the border. As a rule, the policy clearly states the actions of the insured person, but if questions arise, you must ask them to the insurance company representative.
Disappointing data
According to experts, recently there has been a tendency towards an increase in both the number of insured events and the costs associated with this. According to statistics, 90% of insured events that occur in the winter months occur at ski resorts.
According to data from one insurance company, per 100 thousand tourists there are on average 4 deaths, 2 spinal fractures, 1 traumatic brain injury, 6 acute appendicitis cases, 10 severe fractures, 5 infectious diseases, 5 life-threatening exacerbations of chronic diseases, as well as 2 thousand minor injuries, sunburns and heatstrokes. And these troubles catch tourists away from home and away from their native country, and the necessary amount for unplanned treatment, as a rule, is not enough. All the above figures indicate that you need to take care of your health in advance and approach this issue with extreme care.