Medical Emergency
The most obvious thing that travel insurance will cover is medical emergencies. If you are injured while overseas, your travel insurance will pay for your medical bills. You will be surprised with just how quickly these kinds of things can add up. Our Australian friend broke his leg rock climbing in Canada, and required surgery. While he was in hospital he developed a blood infection. After a few weeks of being confined to a bed, he was informed that his hospital bill had reached $150’000. He did not have travel insurance. This happened in 2012, and he is still paying off his bill. If someone asks us, “Do I need travel insurance?”, he is usually the first example we give.
And if you are travelling somewhere like Southeast Asia and think that hospital care is cheap, guess again. Even in a country like Indonesia medical care can cost up to $800 a day.
Our Personal Experiences
We won’t just talk about why you should buy travel insurance without giving some of our personal experiences to back it up. We have been on the road for over seven years and have always paid for travel insurance. Some years we don’t use it – but we don’t see this as a waste of money. We see it as good luck! And in the years we have used it, it has paid for itself. For the hundreds of emails we get asking “do I need travel insurance”, these are some of the examples we give when having travel insurance has come in handy.
Having lived in Canada for three full winters, we have clocked up over 300 days snowboarding there. Naturally we both have sustained injuries that required hospital care. Alesha broke her wrist in her first year and required a cast, x-rays and doctor’s visits. Jarryd has been hospitalised four times and had numerous doctor’s visits. All times we were covered with travel insurance, and all times we either had our hospital bills reimbursed or did not have to pay anything.
Total cost saved: $5000+
We received a phone call from home saying that Jarryd’s grandmother had suffered a heart attack and renal failure, and was in a serious condition. As we hadn’t been home in two years we immediately booked flights from Thailand to Australia to see her. It was Chinese New Year and last minute, so flights were very expensive.
After talking to our travel insurance company they informed us that as this was a family emergency, the interruption and resumption of our journey would be covered under our policy. This meant that we had the full cost of our flights from Thailand to Australia, and then back, reimbursed.
Total cost saved: $3000
Just the other day (May 2016) Alesha started getting intense abdominal pains and violent vomiting. We rushed her off to the hospital in Koh Lanta and had her admitted. After talking to our travel insurance they sent an email to the hospital guaranteeing that they would cover 100% of the costs for treatment. Alesha received a bunch of tests and x-rays, and was placed in a private room. She was cleared to leave that evening after 8 hours of observation and medical care.
Total cost saved: $800
A few years ago I pulled my e-reader out of my backpack and found the screen completely cracked and unreadable. I was bummed (I love to read), but didn’t really have the money to run out and buy a new one. After a quick call to my travel insurance company they confirmed that damaged items was covered under my policy. I submitted a claims form along with photos of my receipt and of my broken screen, and two weeks later I had almost the entire value of the e-reader (minus a few dollars for depreciation) reimbursed and dropped into my account.
Total cost saved: $130