International Travel Insurance
Recently my friend Jane went on a trip to India. This was one of those once in a lifetime trips and she had been planning it for months. About four months before she left she was feeling a little wore down but shrugged it off as just a side effect of all the work she was trying to get done before she left for six months on her trip. The big day came and as I drove Jane to airport I noticed she still looked a little under the weather. She assured me that once she got to India and started to relax she’d be like a new woman!
Unfortunately, about a week into her vacation I heard from her son who had some bad news. It turns out that Jane got worse and went to see a local doctor in India who immediately diagnosed her with having an infection on her liver. She needed immediate surgery to see if this might be cancerous or not. Jane’s son told me that it had been a living nightmare dealing with the insurance company trying to get this taken care of. They were flat out refusing to pay one red dime for any treatment since she was out of the country. Their suggestion, if you can believe it, was for her to fly back to the U.S. for treatment! She could barely get up enough energy to sit up in bed!
The good news is that the doctors in India took excellent care of her and reversed the infection. There was no cancer found and in about 6 weeks she was back to feeling good enough to travel back home. The bad news is that she is now responsible for a hospital bill totaling over $90,000. She never got to see India except for the hospital and the airport.
Jane is working on paying the bill, and she isn’t letting it ruin her outlook on travel. Recently she told me that she hopes to travel back to India next year. I told her that this time around she should check into international travel insurance in case she should need any medical treatment again. I told her about a trip I took to Mexico and breaking my arm and how my international travel insurance paid for everything – even though my regular insurance company refused to pay a dime.
I think Jane is sold on the idea; and hopefully this time around she will bring back some pictures from India of the people and places – and not sure of the doctors and nurses!
