Do I need Travel Insurance?

Types of travel insurance policies:

Trip cancellation/Interruption Insurance
This coverage is for illness, injury, or death. Most policies exclude trip cancellation in the event of war, civil disturbance, or a change in your own financial circumstances.
Many comprehensive travel insurance policies include coverage if your tour operator defaults. Some policies only cover tour operator default if the operator ceases operations entirely, due to bankruptcy. Make sure you know exactly what your policy cover and will not cover before purchasing it and always buy your policy from a reputable company.
Trip cancellation insurance – take time to think about how much money you will be putting down before your trip. The cost of the airline tickets, deposit on a cruise or tour which mostly nonrefundable. You should consider trip cancellation insurance due to these reasons.

Medical/Medevac Insurance
Medical insurance has several types of coverage. Emergency medical evacuation insurance covers the cost of transportation to the nearest medical facility or to your home country if it is warranted.
Check to make sure that your insurance does not exclude adventure travel coverage if you are planning to take a trekking tour up to the Himalayas.
Before purchasing a travel insurance policy with medical coverage, check what your regular medical insurance does or does not cover for oversea travel.
Read the fine print regarding coverage or lack of coverage for pre-existing conditions.

Baggage Loss/Delay
Baggage loss and delay coverage protect you in the event that your luggage is lost, delayed, or stolen. This often includes a cash payment if your bags are delayed for more than 12 hours after you arrive at your destination.
Flight Delay/Cancellation
Flight delay or cancellation insurance (sometimes called “travel delay”) typically pays for accommodations, meals, and new travel arrangements once you have been delayed a certain amount of time (often six to 12 hours, check your policy carefully).

Travel Document Protection
Travel document protection can help you replace a passport or other travel documents when they are lost or stolen.

These are just a few. There is Hurricane policy, Winter Weather Policy and as after September 11, 2001, Terrorism policy.

Travel Insurance Companies:
• First check your credit cards company to see if they do cover some of the above protection
• Travel Guard
• World Nomads
• Square Mouth
• Geo Blue
• Travel Insurance
• STA Travel
• Allianz Travel

Is Travel Insurance a Waste of Money?
The question is how many risks are you willing to take? Does your age and health problems place you at a higher risk while you are traveling? Are you traveling with young children, who are vulnerable to certain health or diseases? Are you okay in paying out pocket for the emergency expense if you must be airlift to a medical facility? The cost could be $25,000 or more, depending on the situation.