You Need Health Insurance when you Travel

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You Need Health Insurance when you Travel

By: Michael Newton

Many countries have what is called “single payer” cheap health insurance. Affordable health insurance for everyone comes out of taxes. If you get sick, you are automatically covered. It doesn't work that way in America because we value individual freedom, tax rates less than 70%, and less government control. Without health insurance, a serious but treatable illness could be a financial death sentence. This is why it is important to always be insured.

I knew someone who was travelling overseas. She was young and in good health, and figured she didn't need health insurance – she had scarcely been sick a day in her life. She was in South America, when she started to feel nausea, and had dizzy spells. At first she ignored them, but they soon grew worse. She returned to the United States and went to a doctor, and discovered that she had cancer. A doctor's visit, combined with a battery of tests can cost hundreds of dollars. Treatment for cancer can run into the thousands, or even the tens or hundreds of thousands. She was unable to afford this kind of expense, and grew sick and eventually passed away. It was a tragic and avoidable death – if she had been insured, things might have turned out much differently. She chose to spend her money on travel and not health insurance. Few things are as important as health insurance.

There are several different kinds of health insurance. The most traditional kind is called a Fee-For-Service plan. It has the advantage of giving you a greater range of choices than any other health care plan – you can go to any doctor you want to. You pay a monthly premium, and also have a deductible, perhaps $250 or $500. This is the amount of medical expenses which you have to pay in any given year before your insurance takes effect. After that, it pays a majority of further medical expense while you pay a small portion, often around 20%.

Another type is called the HMO or Health Management Organization. An HMO has a staff of doctors, often in one or several central locations, which it requires all of its patients to go to. Although you don't have nearly the number of choices you do with a fee-for-service plan, your health insurance costs will be much lower. There is a small fee charged for each visit to a doctor, but most other costs are covered by your health insurance.

Most professionals are insured through their jobs. Their employers are able to buy health insurance at group rates, which saves money, and so they can offer their employees cheap health insurance than they could purchase on their own. Unfortunately, the way group health insurance is set up it causes serious problems for an employee who develops a serious or chronic condition. If they wish to leave the company, they will not be able to find new health insurance, because of their pre-existing condition. Other insurers will not want to cover them, because their condition means their healthcare costs are likely to be higher than the amount of money they pay for coverage. Because of their illness, they may be unable to leave their current employeer, even if their job is unsatisfying. Fortunately many health insurance companies are now offerring transferable insurance.

Michael Newton is a freelance writer for TravelTrotters.com. He writes on many financial subjects and reviewed many health insurance issues.

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