Reader question:

I live in Kentucky but I’ll be going to England next summer for a student program. Do I need international traveling health insurance while I am there?

Miranda

Absolutely!

Health insurance is always a necessity, in whatever part of the world you are. Outrageous medical bills are among the leading cause of debt in American society, and debt leads to bad credit and poor opportunities, which also leads to more difficulty in getting medical health insurance in the future. It’s especially important to be insured when you’re going to a strange place that you are not familiar with, where you might meet up with unknown dangers. That isn’t to say that England is a scary place, but accidents tend to happen on trips when you are in unfamiliar surroundings. You don’t want to be caught unprepared.

Not only is the lack of familiarity a problem, but getting the care you need once in England could cost you a lot of money, which is why I want to stress the important of international traveling health insurance. If you have medical health insurance within the country, almost all of the time that will not be accepted abroad. Government programs like medicaid and Social Security go the same way. If you go out of the country, you have to have other plans. Consider that a medical evacuation out the foreign country and to the United States often costs upwards of $50,000.

Some medical health insurance policies do carry a international traveling health insurance coverage, but if yours doesn’t, you should think about getting temporary health insurance for the duration of the time you will be out of the country. A lot of medical health insurance plans exist that specifically cover people who are traveling, so it shouldn’t be too hard.

One way that you can get a hold of some international traveling health insurance is through your travel agent. They often can help lead you in the right direction towards what you will need. If you get this kind of insurance, it can bring coverage for things even as expensive as medical evacuation to the U.S.

The key to finding a great international traveling health insurance policy is to look around among the companies that exist and compare quotes. You want to get a good deal, but remember that it is very important to get good coverage while you’re abroad, because while you’re that far from Kentucky, you won’t have anything to fall back on.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.