Insurance for a Medical Emergency Abroad

In the flurry of preparations for a trip--looking forward to a pleasant adventure, making sure your home is buckled up during your absence--mature travelers might overlook an important detail when traveling, as unpleasant as it might be to face.

Take a minute to reflect on what you would do if you were in an accident in Europe and the doctors did not speak English; or you lost or ran out of your needed medication in a foreign country. What if you or your spouse became seriously ill in a place with no adequate medical facilities?

The answers to such dilemmas would be just a phone call away if before your trip you were wise enough to sign up for emergency medical assistance, a growing industry in the United States.

Among the growing number of companies offering this service, International SOS, the oldest and largest emergency medical assistance company in the United States, provides services to more than 1,000 international corporations and thousands of travelers, including, of course, mature travelers.

Common Sense Tips

Richard Riley, vice president, offers the following common sense tips to those heading for foreign shores:

--Check with your insurance company to make sure that your health insurance covers you overseas (Medicare does not). Ask if coverage includes emergency medical evacuation and whether there are any exclusions on that coverage. Evacuations can cost upward of $20,000.

--Avoid hospitals in Third World countries if you possibly can. They are often simply a place to sleep, with no food and little staff. If you can, recuperate in your hotel room.

--Be sure to take duplicates of all important medications and prescriptions for them. Be aware when filling a prescription overseas that a drug will probably be called by a different name. Have your doctor write a prescription using the generic name.

--Be aware that a U.S. embassy cannot give you money and can provide little more than advice and comfort.

Riley particularly advises mature travelers, those with irregular medical histories and people visiting countries where the medical conditions are antiquated to make sure they’re covered for emergencies that might require an evacuation for proper medical treatment.

Check Fine Print

“Almost all personal and group health insurance coverage, except for Medicare, will protect you overseas,” says Riley, so buying health insurance is often redundant. But it’s important that you check with your insurance agent before you leave. Otherwise, in the event of an emergency, you may pay tens of thousands of dollars that will not be reimbursed.

He also points out that many travel insurance packages offer evacuation benefits but often so many exclusions have been added that in fact you may not be covered. Common exclusions include age, pre-existing medical conditions, acts of war, hijacking, natural causes such as earthquakes and unlawful acts such as suicide or taking drugs. Treatment in Eastern European countries is also a common exclusion.

“Be sure to check the fine print,” advises Riley.

Individual travelers can benefit from the same services that SOS provides to hundreds of international corporations, among them 200 of the Fortune 500. For a membership fee, these are some of the benefits individuals are offered:

--Emergency evacuation when adequate medical facilities are unavailable locally.

--Medically supervised repatriation when the treating physician determines that it is medically advisable to take the patient closer to home.

--Twenty-four-hour telephone access to English-speaking doctors and referral to English-speaking doctors in the area.

--Authorization of payment of medical fees, using internationally accepted charge cards where accepted for use.

--Repatriation of mortal remains in the event of a member’s death while traveling more than 100 miles from home.

--Transportation to join a disabled member who is traveling alone and who has been hospitalized for more than seven days.

Following is basic information for some of the major travel-assistance companies, all of which have toll-free phone numbers:

International SOS, 1 Neshaminy Interplex, Trevose, Pa. 19047, phone (800) 523-8930. Offers assistance anywhere 100 miles or more from home. Offers $1,000 accident and sickness benefit, $25 deductible, to cover the deductible cost that member’s major medical insurance requires, because Riley says 99% of travelers have medical insurance. The main service is critical care patient monitoring and evacuation, as well as referrals. The cost is a $195 annual membership fee and $15 for a one- to seven-day trip, plus $2 for each additional day or $45 a month.

Access America Inc., 600 3rd Ave., Box 807, New York 10163, phone (800) 851-2800. A subsidiary of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New York and Washington, it covers travel at least 100 miles from home. In addition to basic services, it pays up to $10,000 a person and $20,000 a family for care not covered by a member’s health insurance. Members get up to $1,000 coverage for trip cancellation. Trips to several dangerous countries are excluded from coverage. The cost is $75 a person for five to eight days of overseas travel. A North America program is available for $49 a person for five to eight days of travel in the continental U.S., Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.

Travel Assistance International, 1333 F St. N.W., Suite 300, Washington, D.C. 20004, phone (800) 821-2828. Does not cover domestic trips. Services not available in Laos, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Lebanon or Uganda. Refers clients to medical centers. Pays up to $5,000 in medical costs and unlimited transportation expenses. Costs $35 for one- to eight-day trips or $120 for a year’s coverage (90 days maximum per trip).

Health Care Abroad, 243 Church St. W., Vienna, Va. 22180, phone (800) 237-6615. $3 a day covers $100,000 of accident and sickness insurance that includes medical care and evacuation for a minimum of 10 days, maximum of 90 days. Also offers Health Care Global, which may be as low as $1 a day and covers $25,000 of accident and sickness including medical, and evacuation for a minimum of 10 and maximum of 90 days. In addition, the company subscribes to Europ Assist, which expedites assistance and provides a directory of hospitals and clinics in more than 1,000 cities in 126 foreign countries.

Most individual insurance plans, including Blue Cross, cover emergency care abroad but few foreign hospitals will accept American health insurance. Medicare, it bears repeating, does not cover treatment abroad.

One additional tip: The British Tourist Authority points out that a new and inexpensive package is available to travelers to the United Kingdom for emergency treatment only. The 9 per person provides for up to 50,000 coverage for 31 days. The policy may be extended for 7 per person for each additional month up to a maximum of six months. The BTA pointed out, however, that this covers only emergency treatment that is deemed by the National Health Service to be necessary.

Mature travelers and all readers are urged to check their individual health insurance coverage, to ask questions and read all policies carefully before subscribing to any insurance or travel assistance plan.