Hi, my husband and I will be traveling to Italy in four weeks, I heard today that we should buy health ins, b/c ours will not be good there. A friend of a friend broke her ankle and ended up in a mess. Any tips???

A friend of mine fell and broke his ankle in Rome a few months ago and his treatment in Italy was free as it would have been for an Italian.

Was that a fluke or will a foreigner get free health care as a matter of course?

Cato, He didn't know for sure but said it appeared to be routine. There was never a question about insurance or who was going to pay.

Not that I need it yet, but I heard that Medicare coverage doesn't apply outside the US. Like many of you, I'd like to live in europe for long periods of time after I retire.

Parrothead,

I spent 3 weeks in an Italian hospital and got a bill for a pittance. That said, you should buy health insurance because ANYTHING can happen, and you or your traveling companions might want immediate transport back home or incur lots of additional expenses (phone bills, cancelled hotel reservations or extra nights in a hotel to recuperate, etc.). Basic travel insurance usually adds about $100 (or less) to the overall cost of your trip. For four weeks, that's about $3 a day. It's worth it. Believe me.

Hi PH,

>I heard today that we should buy health ins, b/c ours will not be good there. <

Did you check with your insurance carrier?

Ours is good all over the world.

Hi cato,

>...I heard that Medicare coverage doesn't apply outside the US. <

That is correct.

Hi ness,

I just spent some time looking into travel insurance.

The kind that covers the cost of your missed trip is useful - sometimes - if you have 1cl tickets or a cruise for which you don't want to be self-insured.

Health and accident can be useful for people who don't have overseas coverage.

Evacuation insurance is quite different.

All of the policies that I found (about 12) require will transport you to the nearest appropriate medical facility.

However, evacuation home requires that both your attending physician and the insurer's medical staff agree that you can't get proper care except in your home country.

This is unlikely to be the case in Europe.

In both Japan and Italy, where I had pneumonia, hardly an exotic disease, my travel insurance paid for the necessity of extra hotel nights when I was too sick to move and an added internal domestic flight for both myself and my husband when I was ill so I didn't have to take the train. My health insurance would not have paid for that. Not to mention that my travel insurance covered 100 percent of my Italian and Japanese medical costs, including prescriptions, and my American insurance only covers 80 percent.

My insurers also provided round-the-clock translators by phone who translated between me, my doctors and the hospital administration (American Express will often provide this service too), and now insurance also covers the cost of cancellation of my upcoming trip costs if an immediate family member becomes ill and I need to stay home to take care of them.

People should definitely check with their American insurer about how much coverage they'll have when traveling and make their own determination if their insurance company is set up to deal with emergencies abroad.

For $3 a day, I think the cost is absurdly low for the amount of reimubursement you get if you need it.

Hi ness,

Sounds good. Who was your insurer?

travelex

Always get insurance as there is more to it than just covering any medical bills.

A case in point: two of my Australian cousins are here visiting family. Three days ago (2 days before they were due to go home) he had a mild heart attack and is still in hospital. His treatment has been covered by the NHS. However, their travel insurance has covered their having to buy new flights home in a couple of weeks time and other expenses. Without it, they would have been in real trouble. Normally they would have had to arrange another couple of weeks hotel stay for his sister (luckily she can stay with my parents) but unless you are visiting relatives that would be another expense (which would be covered by insurance).

Nessundorma,
How do you go about getting the insurance through Travelex? We live in a remote area and don't have access to the offices that those in cities do. Can it be done over the internet? I don't want to be "scammed"!

We leave in 2 weeks, so the rush is on if we are going to get this done in time. Thanks!

We use CSA travel insurance. It even covers any auto insurance that isn't covered by another policy. It covers lost luggage, any deductibles from other insurances, trip delay, etc. It's is always wise to have travel insurance to cover you.

check out www.insuremytrip.com There you can compare different policies side by side. They have travelex, CSA and the other companies too. Makes it easy. I still didn`t know what was best for me, so I called them and they were very helpful.

For Travelex, ask your local travel agent for a brochure.