Visitor medical insurance is a type of travel medical insurance that people purchase before traveling in any another country, and typically outside home country of residence. In general, health insurance coverage from your home country will cease to be effective outside home country borders and will not help you pay any medical bills incurred while in a foreign destination. This can create some very difficult situations for international visitors and travelers, if they incur and an accident or sickness while in the host nation. If you need emergency medical condition or suffer from a serious medical diagnosis while in a foreign country, it can be very difficult to pay the higher cost medical bills out of pocket. In order to prevent a financial catastrophe, it is prudent to buy visitors health insurance to protect family members such as relatives and parents, or any other visitors.
Common coverage in visitor health insurance policies includes medical treatment of conditions or illnesses suffered or first detected during the plan period. Also, some situations such as pre-existing illnesses, wellness visits, and pregnancy-related treatment, are usually exempt from coverage. The duration of the visitor insurance plan can be as short as five days, and as long as 12 months. If additional coverage is required, certain plans will allow you to extend or renew the policy for another 12 months; however, this will be under a new policy number.
Whether or not a medical situation is covered is the same for most visitors insurance plan options. However, the reimbursement or coverage limit is determined by the visitors insurance plan you choose. All plans cover basic medical expenses such as doctor consultation and hospital expenses, ambulance charges, surgical costs, and costs related to diagnostic tests and prescription medicines. Nursing and physiotherapy charges are also covered. Dental procedures are covered in the visitors coverage plan if natural teeth are damaged in an accident, some plans offer coverage for sudden dental pain also.
Most comprehensive or fixed benefit visitors medical insurance plans offer a wide array coverage benefits for a reasonable quoted premium cost. For short duration travel outside home country borders, it is best advise to purchase a adequate amount of visitor coverage since the premium cost will be worth every penny paid even if one falls sick with just a routine flu or a fall on the side walk involving just a minor injury. In these situations, the potential benefits outweigh the paid premiums easily as one can claim them against the visitors insurance policy. In more serious health situations, one should not take chances and skipping any visitor insurance purchase as one cannot predict or control when a bad health situation arises or when one is involved in an accident. These serious events could be expensive in terms of medical bills, more importantly, access to the right care at the right time is vital to saving the visitors life or limbs. By learning about visitor’s health insurance, and proactively purchasing a visitor insurance policy, you can help your visitors to travel worry free knowing that it will protect them medically during their stay.